


a moment in time (and space)

by SarcasticIrishCat



Series: moments in time (and space) [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: (kind of? blame tann again), Complete, F/F, Flirting, Fluff, I Had No Idea What I Was Doing, Interspecies, Orgasm Denial, Talons, These two are such dorks, Touching, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, i looked up naked turians on google images, i think vetra might be a dom, i wish dexter was real, i've never posted anything like this before, let's just see where it takes us, now with alien porn, ryder digs vetra so bad, tann is like the opposite of viagra, this is how i spent my weekend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-12 17:35:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10496124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarcasticIrishCat/pseuds/SarcasticIrishCat
Summary: Or, 'Ryder and Vetra just want one goddamn evening to themselves but the universe (and mainly Director Tann) get in the way', a series.Edit 27/03/2018: holy crap you guys!! I haven't looked at this fic in almost a year - THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the kudos and comments! Ya'll are the greatest! <3





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> I've kept this relatively spoiler-free, because I'm sure a lot of you reading this are like me - too impatient to finish the game before you start delving yourself into fics of your new OTP. So, enjoy! 
> 
> This first chapter takes place after what I like to refer to as the 'Burnt Steak Scene'.

_“I think I know how to make all this up to you.”_

_“Please, no more food.”_

_“No. I think you’ll like this...”_

Ryder laughed as Vetra slowly lowered her down to the bed, fully trusting that the turian wouldn’t let her fall. 

The last few weeks had been hectic for the Tempest and her crew and as a result there hadn’t been that much time for anything that wasn’t pathfinding or assisting the new outposts. Ryder and Vetra had only managed to steal quick moments between missions – a kiss in a dark corner of the ship or the brush of hands against each other over a console. 

If Ryder was being honest, the slow build-up of arousal over those weeks was kind of doing it for her. She had never been so content about being so sexually frustrated, but because she knew that once they finally got a chance to focus on themselves it was going to be spectacular. Like the fireworks and rockets kind of good.

Vetra hovered over her once she was fully laid out, her hands resting on either side of Ryder’s head as she dipped down to nuzzle against her cheek. “I’ve been doing some research,” Vetra said against her ear, and it sent a shiver down Ryder’s spine.

“Mm?” Ryder tried to focus but Vetra was starting to nibble around the shell of her ear and a particularly well-aimed bite to a spot behind her earlobe forced a gasp from her lips. She could feel the beginnings of a familiar heat pooling in her belly. “Yeah?” she managed, mumbling. “What did you find?”

Vetra shifted slightly to kiss her way down the side of Ryder’s neck, and she had to bite back the moan that desperately wanted to escape. Vetra was lingering on an area that had made her twitch slightly and started to lavish attention on it, little nips and kisses that were slowly starting to wear down her control. 

Gods, it had never felt this good before. 

Ryder made a sound of protest when Vetra moved but she was quieted with a kiss on her lips, the turian’s mouth moving gently against her own, and she wrapped her arms around Vetra’s carapace to hold her in place. Vetra chuckled and pulled back slightly so that she could look down at Ryder’s face. 

“I read that human skin is much more sensitive that a turian’s hide,” Vetra said conversationally, as if she didn’t have her human hot and flushed already beneath her, “and there are certain - I think the term was ‘erogenous zones’ – that provide immense please when stimulated.” Vetra brought one of her hands up to thread her fingers through Ryder’s hair. Talons rested against her scalp, cradling her head gently for a moment before carefully scratching down towards her neck. Ryder couldn’t stop the little mewl of pleasure from escaping her, and her hips twitched slightly – a move that didn’t go unnoticed by Vetra if her approving hum was anything to go by. 

“I think that all of my research should be put in to practice.” Vetra paused, trailing her talons down Ryder’s neck, and Ryder may not be particularly well-versed in reading a turian’s facial expressions but she knew Vetra. And Vetra was smirking down at her, eyes dark as coal. “What do you think?”

“Guh,” Ryder replied. 

Vetra laughed, and the sound rolled across Ryder like a soothing balm. 

Ryder could remember overhearing a conversation from her Alliance days, when there were six or more of them cramped in to some tiny shelter overnight and to pass the time they discussed if any of the alien species they had come across so far were aesthetically pleasing. The general consensus was that the asari were about as attractive as they come, considering how humanoid they looked, and whether their privates functioned the same way as theirs. They speculated about what the quarians looked like under their face masks, and if salarians really didn’t possess a sex drive. 

And when the talk turned to turians, everybody had unanimously agreed that they were downright unattractive – second only to the krogans. 

Thinking back on that conversation, Ryder couldn’t help but pity how wrong her companions had been. There was no creature more magnificent than Vetra. Her turian looked beautiful when she laughed – or when she did anything at all, really. Her opinion might be biased (hopelessly besotted as she was) but Ryder was willing to do anything she could to prove to the entirety of the Andromeda system that Vetra Nyx was _very_ desirable, and anybody who disagreed could come and answer to the pathfinder.

Vetra had gone quiet above her, but was looking down at her with fondness. “You went somewhere else for a moment,” she said softly, trailing the hand that had been at Ryder’s neck back up to cup her cheek. “Anything I should be concerned about?”

Ryder could tell she meant the question in jest but there was something off in the tone of her sub-harmonics that spoke of tension, and Ryder wouldn’t stand for that. 

“Everything is perfect,” she spoke firmly, leaving no room for doubt in her expression. She reached up to cover the hand on her cheek with her own. “Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you with me, here.”

Vetra remained quiet, but there was a distinct change in the colouration on the sides of her neck – a slightly blue tinge that spread down and disappeared under her cowl. 

“Oh my gods! Did I just make you blush?”

“What? N-no. You did not.”

“I completely did,” Ryder laughed, pushing herself to sit up. The move forced Vetra to lean back and she ended up straddling Ryder’s lap (which yup – Ryder was a hundred percent okay with that). The new position gave her a closer look at the flush which had only gotten stronger at Ryder’s words. She reached out to gently run her fingertips along it. “I’ve never seen you _blush_ before!”

Vetra huffed out a laugh and subjected herself to the gentle exploration of Ryder’s hands along her throat. “You’ve never been close enough to notice when I did,” she explained. Vetra’s breathing was a little unsteady as Ryder’s fingertips continued their path. She pulled her hand back slightly and looked up in alarm.

“That wasn’t hurting you, was it?” she asked. Damn, she _really_ should have done her own research on turians. She’d never forgive herself if she accidentally caused her lover harm.

“Ah, no. No, you didn’t.” Vetra smiled at her and leaned back in to press a kiss to Ryder’s jawline. “For a turian, it actually feels _very_ good to be touched there.”

Ryder hummed thoughtfully and gently ran her hands over the front of her carapace to trail up and rest on each side of Vetra’s neck. “So tell me – is it only soft touches that feel good?” she asked and pressed herself closer to the turian’s body, dropping her voice to a lower, sultry register. “Or do you like it hard and – hey!”

The Pathfinder suddenly found herself with her back on the bed once again, but this time both of her hands were being held in one of the turian’s own above her head (a pulse of arousal flared through her body at _that _) and Vetra had situated one of her knees between Ryder’s thighs.__

__“In case you’ve already forgotten, Ryder, I’m the one that’s meant to be studying you.” Vetra was watching her intensely, something hungry and predatory in her eyes. “Think you can keep still?”_ _

__“Depends,” Ryder muttered, pulling against the grip on her hands. She bit her lip to contain her whimper when she didn’t even so much as shift. Fuck, Vetra was strong, and apparently will to hold her down with that strength. She felt the heat course through her again and barely stopped herself from attempting to clench her thighs together. “Do I get to study you afterwards? Although at this point I think you’d have to try and stop me,” she ended her statement with another pointed tug on her wrists._ _

__Vetra laughed again and released her wrists, an approving rumble escaping her when Ryder kept her hands where they were. “I get to go first,” she stated, running her talons lightly down Ryder’s side, smirking at the gasp it got her. Her hands stopped at the bottom of Ryder’s top, her talons slipping underneath it ever so slightly._ _

__There was no way to conceal the way Ryder’s hips jerked when Vetra leaned down to place a kiss on the small expanse of skin that had been revealed, and the turian chuckled at the reaction. “We will discuss the terms of your own study once I’m finished with you,” she said against the soft skin, eliciting a delicious gasp from her human. “Is that agreeable with you?”_ _

__Ryder’s brain had short-circuited, so it took her a moment to realise that she had been asked a question. “Um – yeah. Th-that’s totally fine. Study away.” She would curse her inelegance later, when Vetra’s talons _weren’t_ slowly creeping their way up her stomach under her top. She relaxed back into the bed, happily allowing herself to be subjected to Vetra’s curiosity for the foreseeable future. _ _

__So of course that was the moment that SAM interrupted them to explain there was an urgent vid call from Director Tann, which turned out to be a request to immediately go after a distress signal that the Nexus had traced, which _of course_ turned out to be a crashed ship where inevitably there were scavengers waiting to pounce on them._ _

__And if Ryder took extra pleasure in wiping them off the face of the planet no one commented on it._ _


	2. two

“... And you can tell that human that if I catch him near our family quarters again, I’ll feed him to the varren.”

Cora sighed. “We don’t have varren in Andromeda,” she muttered under her breath.

“Thank the goddess,” Peebee returned, just as quietly.

Ryder had to bite inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing and potentially creating a political incident on New Tuchanka (it wouldn’t be the first incident, but she would rather that the human Pathfinder wasn’t caught stirring the pot, so to speak).

Their new outpost on Elaaden was shaping up nicely. Focused mainly on defences, it was likely going to be their lead outpost on militia training for all species – including the krogan, if they could manage to smooth out the creases in their strained relationship.

“I can assure you,” Ryder stated in her most commanding voice, “that I will personally notify every individual on this base to keep their distance from the krogan residential area. This won’t happen again.”

The krogan stepped forward to tower over her and snarled in her face. “See that it doesn’t, Pathfinder.”

He trudged off, back towards the entrance for New Tuchanka and Ryder breathed a sigh of relief.

Peebee hummed thoughtfully from behind her, “Do you think they’ll try and tame the animals here?”

“Please, no,” Ryder groaned, turning to face her crewmates. “If they decide to get more adventurous than the adhi I will officially quit. Come on, we’ve got people to talk to.” 

**

It wasn’t until much later that day (or was it night time now? The never ending sunshine of Elaaden was really off-putting) that Ryder was shuffling out of the cargo bay on the Tempest. She could practically feel every individual grain of sand rubbing against her skin beneath her clothes, and she didn’t even want to know how it had managed to make its way under her armour throughout the day. There was a shower with her name on it, and she wasn’t about to let anything distract her –

\- except for the quick blur of blue that dashed out from the med-bay and dragged her into the sterile room.

“Ryder, I need to speak with you briefly.”

The pathfinder definitely did not whine as the door to her quarters disappeared from her sight. “Lexi, not now; I’m grumpy, and hot, and I have sand in places where sand  _definitely_  should not be.”

“I won’t keep you long,” Lexi assured her as she gently guided her towards one of the beds. “You’re surprisingly difficult to get a hold of. I’ve been trying to speak with you since we left Kadara.”

That brightened her mood a little - the last time they were on Kadara, Vetra had wanted to show her the beautiful view that she had found, and where they had shared their first kiss. The memory brought a silly grin to Ryder’s face.

Lexi rolled her eyes, but the action was fond. “Yes, _that_.” The doctor turned away to rummage in a nearby draw. “I’m assuming that since neither of you have been in here with a severe allergic reaction you are yet to become ... shall we say, intimate with each other?”

_Not for lack of trying_ , Ryder thought, but said, “Where are you going with this, doc?”

“I recommend taking precautions before you and Vetra get to that stage. Dextro and levo enzymes are incompatible with each other, Ryder. Surely you remember that?”

“Uuh...”

“Really?”

“Hey,” Ryder tried to go for defensive but it ended up coming out meekly, “it’s not like I didn’t know that. Or that we didn’t know that. I’m sure we would have remembered when we...”

“When you got down to it?”

“Well-”

“I imagine that would put a dampener on the mood.”

“Lexi, I would have remembered eventually-”

“Ryder,” Lexi interrupted, a smile twitching at her lips, “I am only teasing you.”

“Ha ha.”

Lexi approached her with syringe filled with a small shot of dark purple liquid. “Thankfully, I have an easy solution. Push up your sleeve for me.” The doctor cleaned a small area of skin near her elbow. “The asari have become quite adept at developing medicines which target the dangerous enzymes and quickly break them down into something more manageable for your body to process. I could provide you with tablets to take before you are intimate; however, speaking from experience, as a long-term solution it isn’t very efficient. This needle contains a small implant which steadily releases the vaccine in to your body over three months. As the end it dissolves harmlessly and will need to be replaced.”

“Huh,” Ryder watched as Lexi prepped her skin. “Kind of like the old human contraceptive. But do we really have the resources to start administering this kind of stuff? Shouldn’t it be saved for something important?”

Lexi huffed out a small laugh and she looked at Ryder with amusement. “Sara, this vaccine was made for sex. It is literally unusable for anything else, and I guarantee that this will not be the first implant administered since we reached Andromeda.” Her gaze softened then and she turned to focus on pressing the needle to the soft skin of Ryder’s arm. “You are allowed to be happy, amidst all this chaos. If you’ve found love then you should be able to cherish it. Enjoy it.”

Ryder watched as the liquid and implant was injected, kind of touched. “This is the weirdest gift that I’ve ever been given,” she mumbled, avoiding eye contact with the doctor when she pulled away to dispose of the needle. Lexi covered to point of injection with a small circular plaster. “But, thank you all the same.”

“It’s nothing, Sarah.” Lexi smiled slyly. “Now go and have some fun.”

“Ew, we were having a moment - _you_ just made it weird.” Ryder jumped off the bed, wincing at the small pile of sand that had snuck out of her clothes without her noticing. “Sorry about that. Guess I should go get showered before Kallo comes after me for wrecking his ship.”

“You could always invite Vetra to join you.”

Ryder flushed and laughed nervously. “Thanks for the suggestion.” She paused at the med-bay door to turn back to Lexi. “Does Vetra need to come see you as well?”

The doctor shook her head. “I’ve already seen to Vetra. Now shoo, I need to work on some reports.”

Ryder gave a mock salute and headed out.

She stripped off her clothes as soon as her door was locked behind her, chucking her dirty laundry down the chute before entering her bathroom.

To call it a room was a bit of a stretch – it was just large enough to fit a toilet, sink and small shower though it still felt cramped. It was a strange allocation of space, considering the excessive size of her quarters and how little of it actually got used. She’d have to speak with Kallo again about potentially refitting the room – maybe make her quarters smaller and give them enough room for a crew lounge. She’s sure everyone would appreciate that.

“SAM?”

“Yes, Sara.”

“Send a message to Vetra please. Let her know I’m back and she can come up when she’s ready.”

“Of course.”

Ryder turned on the shower and allowed herself a moment to just let the hot water stream down her back, relaxing her stiff muscles.  But she couldn’t linger long – she always felt guilty about indulging in showers when the Nexus and the outposts were still working off of rations. Even knowing that fresh water was being shipped from Voeld didn’t assuage her guilt.

She got to work scrubbing the sand off her body, wincing as it scratched uncomfortably at her skin. The soap did little to assist her efforts and washing her hair wasn’t much more successful. She eventually gave up and settled for setting the shower on a higher pressure and hoped that just blasted all the damn sand away.

She switched the water off when she felt a bit smoother and less grainy and quickly towelled herself dry. It was late – almost 2300 by ship time – and Ryder wondered if maybe Vetra had gone to sleep already. There would be little point in disturbing her now, in that case. Sleep was a precious thing to have these days, like a brief relief from the sometimes harrowing reality they had woken up in. Ryder dressed herself in her vest and panties before crawling under her sheets and practically buried herself in the bed as she tried to ignore the planet system outside. They would remain in orbit until 0800, and after they checked one last time that their outpost had no other requests they would begin their journey back to the Nexus.

Ryder let out a long sigh and closed her eyes, trying to relax into something that resembled sleep. She might be able to manage two or three hours tonight, if she was lucky, and then she could spend the rest of the hours while the crew slept checking their stockpiles and what resources they were running low on.

Ryder took a few deep breaths, letting the tension ease from her muscles off long enough to let her slip into sleep.

 **

She was roused sometime later by something warm slipping under the covers beside her and a familiar angular body wrapping itself around her from behind. “Mmph, Vetra?” she managed to mumble.

“I should hope so,” was the amused reply. Vetra had cuddled in close and nuzzled the back of Ryder’s neck, sighing in contentment. “I’d be worried if you were expecting someone else.”

“I wasn’t expecting anyone at all.” Ryder shuffled around so she was on her side and facing her girlfriend, a sleepy smile on her face. “Thought you were asleep when I didn’t get a reply.”

Vetra hummed, “Sorry. I was still on-planet helping the scientists, I only just got back.”

“What time is it?”

“Just after 0200.”

Ryder grumbled unhappily and snuggled deeper into Vetra’s embrace. “You work too late.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” Vetra said. She started to gently trail her talons along Ryder’s arm in a soothing motion, the sensation falling somewhere between ticklish and relaxing. “The research needed done, and we’ll be able to leave orbit on time in the morning.” Vetra paused as one of her talons caught on the plaster near her elbow. “What’s this?”

“Hm? Oh!” Ryder had almost forgotten about her visit with Lexi earlier. “Lexi told me about the implant that would stop me from going in to anaphylactic shock when I eventually have my way with you - which will hopefully be soon.”

Vetra chuckled and wrapped her arm around the human’s waist. “I look forward it,” she whispered, “but sleep now.”

Ryder pouted slightly. “I basically have a doctor’s note saying we should have sex and you’re telling me to sleep,” she tried to protest, but the drowsiness was beginning to overwhelm her.

“You’re incorrigible,” Vetra said, but Ryder could hear the fondness in her sub-harmonics. “Sleep. I’ll still be here in the morning.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

 **

When Ryder woke again she was feeling more rested than she had in months. She checked the time (0623, which wasn’t too bad) and stretched languidly. She almost startled at the feel of a body brushing against her own before she remembered a sleepy conversation with Vetra as the turian climbed into her bed in the early hours of the morning.

It had been almost a week since the disaster of Vetra trying to cook her dinner and then the not-so disastrous aftermath on the bed – before they were interrupted, that is. Their life was a hectic back-and-forth voyage between their outposts and the Nexus, and as always they struggled to find more than a handful of minutes in each other’s presence.

To say she was pleased that Vetra stayed the night was an understatement, and felt a thrum of contentment running through her veins. Maybe this could be times that they had to themselves, those moments before the crew woke and they began their journey onwards. Gods knew she was desperate to make that final leap with her lover. She wanted to take Vetra apart with her mouth and put her back together again.

Rolling over with a grin, Ryder took a moment to study her sleeping girlfriend.

She had never seen a sleeping turian before. Vetra looked peaceful, her mandibles relaxed and she was snoring softly. She had rolled onto her back at some point during the night, and Ryder noticed that she had brought her own pillow with her – one better suited to support her carapace – and the hand closest to Ryder was stretched out slightly in her direction.

Vetra was also wearing what she could only assume were turian night clothes, or maybe it was just an under-suit? It was skin tight and Ryder wondered for a moment if turians typically wore pyjamas or if this was just one of Vetra’s quirks; a habit she had picked up from being around humans for so long. Turians certainly had no need for protective night-time clothing, not with their thick hide.

Ryder smiled and wondered if maybe this was Vetra’s way of being modest. A human climbing in to bed naked was a pretty big thing and was a huge statement of trust. It was sweet if Vetra was respecting those boundaries by accommodating the human norm.

However, Ryder had no problem with the turian way of doing things. That was much more her speed.

Vetra’s eyes blinked open, almost as if she was aware she was being watched (a predator’s reaction, Ryder thought with a thrill) but she smiled when her focus shifted to Ryder, who had propped herself up on an arm for a better perspective. They didn’t say anything for a moment, just simply smiled at each other before Vetra broke the silence.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” Ryder replied. “I didn’t think you’d actually stay.”

“Is that a complaint?”

“Hell no.”

Vetra laughed and reached out to tangle her hand in the one that wasn’t currently supporting Ryder’s head. “Your bed is remarkably comfortable, for a humans’.”

“The perks of dating a Pathfinder.” Ryder closed the distance between them to kiss Vetra gently, letting their mouths simply linger against each other’s. She didn’t go far when she pulled back. “I could get used to waking up with you in my bed.”

Vetra purred in contentment. “If that’s an invitation, I gladly accept,” she joked.

Ryder tilted her head to the side in consideration for a moment. She had said it as a flirt but now that she thought about it, she’s was wholly onboard with the idea.

Verta had noted her pause and looked at her suspiciously. “You’ve got your thinking face on. What is it?”

“Well... what if you did wake up in my room every day?” she said tentatively. “We don’t get much time together, if we shared a room we would have guaranteed private time everyday – or even if we just shared the same bed we could-”

“Sara,” Vetra interrupted her, a smiling quirking her mandibles, “are you asking me to move in with you?”

“Kind of?” Ryder winced at the answer, quickly backtracking in case Vetra thought it was too much too fast. “You can forget about everything I just said, if you want to. This conversation is too heavy for this early in the morning. I just thought that-”

Ryder gasped, cut off from her rambling by a Vetra’s mouth pressing against her lips. The turian took the opportunity of Ryder’s open mouth and slid her rough tongue against a softer one, tenderly exploring the new territory with so much care that Ryder melted against her girlfriend’s body. Gods, she had thought she was pushing their cultural differences by kissing a turian, but this turian was apparently very enthusiastic about the human’s way of expressing affection. Vetra was so skilled it was making Ryder’s toes curl – a rougher tongue ran across the back of her teeth and Ryder flat-out moaned. 

Holy fuck, if she ever found out that Vetra learned this from someone else Ryder would kill them - after thanking them.

Profusely.

Vetra broke off their kiss, with a tiny whimper from Ryder at the loss, and pressed their foreheads together instead. They were both panting slightly, and Ryder wanted nothing more than to carry on with what they were doing.

“I would love to spend more time here, with you,” Vetra said between breaths. Her hand curled around to cup the back of Ryder’s head. “If you really meant it, of course I’ll sleep here.”

“Holy fuck yes,” Ryder agreed. “Immediately. Starting tonight. So that’s a yes, definitely?”

Vetra laughed, “Yes, Sara.”

Ryder leaned in to kiss her girlfriend, taking pleasure that _she_  was the one doing the exploring this time. She applied too much force as she moved in and ended up sprawling on top of Vetra’s chest. Her turian didn’t seem to care though. Vetra’s hand moved down to grasp her waist and tugged slightly, trying to bring her closer.

Ryder immediately got with the programme and swung a leg over Vetra’s hip so that she was straddling her instead. The blanket, which had been covering them both up until that moment, shifted off of Ryder’s body entirely and she suddenly remembered that she wasn’t wearing anything more than her panties of her bottom half. She could feel the heat that poured off of Vetra directly between her thighs.

She couldn’t stop the little mewl of pleasure that left her. Vetra was so warm.

Vetra seemed to realise her state of undress at the same time and she leaned back with a noise of surprise and took in the sight of Ryder, sitting on her abdomen in her dull grey vest and even duller grey panties which were fraying slightly at the edges (gods, why couldn’t she have though to put on something a little sexier?).

Vetra didn’t seem deterred by their state however and her hands, which were still gripping Ryder’s waist, started to trace around the upper edge of the fabric. “Do you usually wear these clothes to sleep in?” Vetra asked curiously. “It’s less than I was expecting – not that I’m complaining.”

Ryder drew in a shuddering breath. Vetra was running her talons along her skin and she moved her slightly to trace the edges of the fabric that went along her inner thighs, not dipping between her legs completely but close enough. “Ah,” she tried to respond, but she was focusing too much on not rolling her hips against those gorgeous hands. “N-no, normally I wear pyjama bottoms, but I was tired last night and – and ...”

“And?” Vetra prompted. One of her talons brushed lightly against the front of her panties. Vetra’s eyes glittered mischievously.

Ryder whimpered. Her girlfriend was toying with her and she was already so wound up she was pretty sure she could come from just this. “Vetra, _please_.”

Vetra hummed pleasantly, but Ryder could hear the low murmur of arousal in her sub-harmonics. “If you’re looking for my permission, Sara,” she mumbled, a talon hooking under the fabric, mere millimetres away from her clit, “then you have it.”

She was so light-headed already, and the first roll of her hips against Vetra’s had her shuddering in bliss. A breathy moan left her lips and Vetra gasped, her talons tightening around the Ryder’s waist. The turian pushed her hips up in response and Ryder almost cried out as she rolled down to meet the movement, the arousal running hot through her veins.

She could vaguely recall turian anatomy and if she was remembering correctly then her rump would be resting right over Vetra’s groin plates. Ryder tested her theory and rotated her hips in place, and she was rewarded with Vetra moaning her name.

“Fuck yes,” Ryder breathed out. She could totally work with this.

The next minute was spent rocking lazily against each other, with Ryder experimenting with how differing pressure could affect her lover’s subharmonics, and Vetra gently running her talons along Ryder’s waist, which made her twitch and gasp and ground down hard against the hot body beneath her.

Vetra shifted a moment later though, stilling Ryder’s hips. She almost whined in frustration but Vetra’s hand was moving between her trembling thighs. “Spirits,” the turian whispered, running a finger against damp fabric, “you’re so ready for me.”

“Yes,” Ryder gasped, pushing against the hand. “Vetra, I need ...”

“I’ve got you, Sara,” Vetra reassured her, “and I will take care of you - but I want to watch you come apart above me first.”

Ryder nodded, biting her lip. One of those clever talons slipped beneath the wet fabric and rested just against her opening. Gods, she only needed a bit of pressure to finish her off and –

_*BEEP*_

They both froze at the sound that was alarmingly loud. Ryder was trembling: she had been so close...

“Pathfinder,” SAM’s voice came from the other end of the room.

“What is it SAM?” she bit out through clenched teeth. Vetra’s hand remained tantalizingly close to her entrance.

“I apologize for disturbing your morning; however Director Tann is on the vid comm and is requesting to speak with you over the krogan dispute from yesterday’s visit.”

Ryder groaned, but this time out of frustration. She could feel the orgasm that she was on the brink of begin to slip away at the mention of Tann’s name. The guy was such a cock-block.

“Tell Director Tann that I have spoken with every fucking person at the outpost, and told them to stop antagonizing _the bloody krogans_ otherwise I will throw them to the worm in the desert and let them fucking defend for themselves,” Ryder stated.

There was a pause from SAM, and Ryder wondered if it was relaying that exact sentence to the Director.

SAM beeped again to signify its presence. “I gave the Director an abridged version of your message however he is not satisfied speaking with me and has requested you immediate presence.” SAM stopped a moment. “My apologies, Pathfinder.”

Ryder sighed and slumped down against her girlfriend. Now the damn machine sounded like a kicked puppy. “It’s okay SAM, it’s not your fault. Tell the Director I’ll be with him presently.”

“Of course. Signing out.”

Ryder whined against Vetra’s neck, who let out a sympathetic hum in response. The turian’s hands were once again resting on her hips and her fingers were attempting to rub soothing circles against her skin.

“Tann is mood-killer,” Ryder grumbled unhappily. “I am going to murder him.”

Vetra chuckled. “No, you won’t. You’d cause a diplomatic incident if you did.”

“Ugh, and we couldn’t have that.”

Vetra sat up and Ryder was forced to move with her. “I guess I should get dressed,” she sighed, pulling at the bottom of her vest with a forlorn expression.

“Shame – I quite like you with less clothing on.” Verta nuzzled her face against Ryder’s neck. “Although Tann might not appreciate it as much.”

“Uck.”

“Go; be all Pathfinder-y.” Vetra pulled back to smile at her. “I’ll be here tonight.”

Ryder’s mood lifted considerably at that, and she felt a goofy smile tug at her lips. “Yeah ... that sounds nice,” she said, leaning in to kiss her girlfriend.

There was another beep, and SAM’s voice: “Pathfinder, you-”

“Yes yes SAM, I’m coming!”

_If only_ , she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The word count for that chapter (and the next one) ended up being longer than I expected!
> 
> Thank you for all your comments on the first chapter!
> 
> Once again, feedback and constructive criticism is appreciated.


	3. an interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vetra has to go off station for a few days - Ryder tries to keep out of trouble.

“I don’t like this,” Ryder stated for a third time.

“I know you don’t,” Vetra said. She continued to stack crates to be loaded onto a shuttle bound for Kadara, making some last minute adjustments and checks.

After Director Tann had so rudely interrupted them the previous morning the Tempest had immediately started its voyage back to the Nexus. Some political hoo-haa apparently had Tann’s knickers in a twist (“I did not understand any of those words,” Jaal had commented) and he said that the easiest resolution was for Ryder to appear personally and make a statement.

It’s not as if they weren’t heading for the Nexus anyway, and the whole affair had taken ten minutes once Ryder arrived (it could have _easily_ been done over vid comm, but gods forbid if Tann never got his way) and afterwards Ryder once again made the rounds in Operations, stopped to chat with the residents and made her way back to the docking bay with a foot-long list of tasks to complete before they left orbit. She brought it upon herself really, but hey, she liked to help people.

Turns out, she hadn’t been the only one getting caught up in Nexus affairs. When she got to the little stretch of railing were Vetra would usually hang out it was to find her girlfriend in a discussion with a couple of other turians. As she approached she heard Vetra agreeing to assist them in repairs. Which was fine.

Until Ryder realised that said repairs would be taking place off-station.

“I don’t want you to go.”

Vetra sighed. “I know that as well but you aren’t exactly stopping me, are you?”

“Only because I’d be an asshole if I did,” Ryder muttered. “What kind of person would I be if I didn’t let you go and help make some major repairs on a turian-built system which purifies the water on _Kadara_.”

“You’re just grumpy because you can’t come along.” Vetra hummed, apparently satisfied that her equipment was ready to go. She turned around to face Ryder, her expression going soft. “I’ll be fine, Ryder.”

“You can take care of yourself, I know,” Ryder said, running a hand through her hair as she sighed. “I just don’t like you being out there without me.”

“You mean without you there to drain your shields by taking all of the fire?”

“What? It’s part of my whole protective-girlfriend routine.”

“Uh-huh.” Vetra moved in close to her, letting her arms wrap around Ryder’s waist as she pressed their brows together. “I’ll email you when I get there, and I’ll be back before you know it.”

“You’ll be gone a long time,” Ryder mumbled. She closed her eyes as she tried to absorb the feeling of Vetra’s body pressed against hers. Her arms wound around the turian’s neck and she pressed a gentle kiss on her mouth. “I’ll miss you.”

Vetra sighed and leaned back in to kiss Ryder more slowly, her tongue dipping past the human’s lips teasingly before she retreated, and leaving Ryder a little flushed. “I’ll be back before you know it. And while I’m gone,” she added, her eyes sparking mischievously, “try and behave, hmm?”

“It’s five days: how much trouble could I possibly get in to?” Ryder said.

**DAY ONE**

 

“Hey Sid, I got your comm! What was it you needed help with - _whoa_!”

“Ryder! It’s so good to see you again!” Sid practically bounded over to her to give her a tight hug which Ryder barely had time to reciprocate before she was pulling away. “Thank you _so much_ for coming! We really need all the help we can get on this one before it becomes a breakout.”

Ryder gazed nervously at the room behind Sid. “I think it might be a bit late for that ... what happened?”

“Do you remember when we were trying to get cat genes out of cryo for production?” Ryder nodded. “Well we thought we’d try for something smaller, y’know, get a few prototypes out, see how they adapt to the new galaxy, check if there’s any unforeseen issues that might occur to any wildlife that we brought.”

“Okay, and ...?”

“And there are no problems! Animals will be able to thrive in Andromeda!”

“That’s great, Sid! But um...” Ryder trailed off as she gestured to the back of the room. “You said ‘a few’, but – that’s a lot of rabbits.”

The floor was almost completely covered by them. Rabbits were hopping back and forth underfoot, some of them nibbling on a bowl of food in the corner while others had hopped closer for a better look at the new arrival.

Sid was wringing her hands together (Ryder didn’t even know turians did that) and she was beginning to look frantic. “The tests were successful but now they won’t stop breeding!”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what rabbits do.”

“Well it wasn’t included in the data pack that we brought from the Milky Way!”

Ryder held her hands up in a placating gesture, “Okay, Sid, stay calm.”

“They’re all over the station!” Sid brought up a terminal screen that showed more than a hundred little red dots scattered across the Nexus. “I don’t even know how they managed to get in to Operations, but Tann is threatening to halt our studies if we can’t get their numbers under control, but _it’s impossible_ -”

“Sid!” Ryder interrupted. When the turian when silent she explained, “I’ll call in my crew to help pick up the strays. We’ll get people assigned to every area and get scanning to make sure none of them are overlooked. Meanwhile,” she continued, gently grasping Sid’s arm and guiding her to sit down at her terminal, “you are going figure out exactly what we’re going to do with all the rabbits once we have them. Okay?”

Sid took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay,” she agreed. “Thank you, Ryder. And ... maybe don’t tell Vetra about this?”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

**

“FUCK!”

Ryder jerked at the shout, almost banging her head on the top of the vent she was currently crammed into. “Liam!” she called out in concern. “You okay?”

“One of the bastards bit me!” Liam replied, his voice echoing oddly in the confined space. “Pretty deep too – I think he drew blood. Shit, what if I get rabies?”

Ryder laughed. “I don’t think the Initiative would have put any rabbits infected with rabies in to cryo.”

“Why take any rabbits at all?” Cora’s voice floated in from the entrance to the vent. “Cats I can understand, but rabbits? They’re practically vermin.”

Ryder’s omni-tool beeped to confirm that there were no more rabbits in the vents. “I dunno, guess they could be used for educational purposes? Or maybe someone was just really fond of them.”

“Yeah well, if I ever meet them I’ll be introducing them to my right hook,” Liam said. He offered his hand to Ryder once she reached the edge of the vent and helped tug her out.

They securely sealed the vent and checked in with the rest of the crew. It had taken almost 10 hours, but they had managed to track down and capture almost every single rabbit with the exception of one that Jaal would get once he finished speaking with the angaran ambassador, whom he had been with since that morning and had therefore managed to avoid the whole fiasco.

“Okay, Sid,” Ryder said into her comm, “that’s the last of them. Any bright ideas on what we’re gonna do next?”

“I don’t know,” the kid replied forlornly. “Some people are interesting in keeping maybe two as pets but that still leaves hundreds of them.”

“Keep looking, Sid,” Ryder said. She cut the call and picked up one of the metal cages that they had been placing the rabbits in, following Liam and Cora to the transit station. They left the cages at the science department and Ryder went off looking for Jaal, who had confirmed that he found the creature but hadn’t brought it in.

“Jaal is currently located in the Cultural Exchange Centre, with the angaran ambassador,” SAM supplied.

“Still?” Jeez, how long did angaran meetings take?

When Ryder reached the CEC the doors were opening and Jaal was walking out with the Ambassador, and ...

“Jaal,” Ryder began slowly, taking in the black rabbit that was cradled tenderly in his arms, “why isn’t that thing in a cage with the others?”

“This creature approached me while we were breaking from our meeting,” Jaal said. “It was not afraid, and when I remained still it jumped on to my shoulder and stayed there.” He scratched the rabbit between the ears and smiled. “It is a remarkable creature, to show no fear when faced with the unknown.”

Ryder blinked. “Uhm ... okay?”

“I overheard a human saying that they had kept one of these as a companion,” the ambassador said. He was watching the creature with curiosity. “Angarans on Aya have not kept pets due to our wildlife’s volatile nature, but this ‘rabbit’ is surprisingly complacent.” He paused and turned to look at Ryder. “Do you have many more aboard the Nexus?”

“...Let me show you,” Ryder said. She gestured at them to follow her, and she opened up her comm line. “Hey Sid? I think I’ve just found your solution.”

 

** DAY TWO **

 

“I _swear_ , it’s completely safe.”

“Peebee, I don’t know...”

“It’s homebrewed asari beer! Brewed quite nicely, if I do say so myself.”

“It’s just that Lexi warned me about your bathtub brews, Peebee, I don’t know if it’s safe for human consumption.”

“Of _course_ it is! I can drink it fine, and so can you.”

“...Okay, but only one glass.”

“That’s more like it, Ryder! Cheers!”

 

** DAY THREE **

 

“Well, look who’s finally waking up.”

Ryder grimaced at the obtrusive voice and she tried to bury herself deeper under the thin blanket covering her. Gods, when had she gone to bed? And what was that smell? Fuck, she couldn’t remember anything.

“Sara, c’mon, open your eyes.”

The voice speaking to her was a familiar one that she had known her whole life. She trusted that voice, so she slowly opened her eyes only to wince at the sterile white that almost blinded her.

“Guh,” she managed to say.

The voice next to her chuckled and she felt someone running their hand through her hair. “Alright, take your time. You had a pretty wild day, from what I hear.”

 _Scott_ , she thought, relaxing in to the touch, _Scott is here and everything is okay_.

It took her a few minutes to remember that Scott was confined to the med-bay on the Hyperion and unless there had been an update that she had missed (which was impossible) then she was also currently on the Hyperion.

Ryder tried to open her eyes again, finding it a bit easier this time around. She was certainly in the human ark’s med-bay, hidden away on a bed in the corner with Scott sitting on the edge next to her.

How had she gotten here? The last thing she could remember was accepting Peebee’s offer of a drink and then...

Ryder groaned and this time tried to bury herself under the blanket in shame. “What did I do?” she asked miserably.

“That’s a loaded question, sis.”

Ryder whimpered. She tried to recall anything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours but there was absolutely nothing coming back to her.

SAM beeped and stated, “The substance you ingested has caused a brief period of anterograde amnesia. However, being witness to the events of yesterday I believe it would be best if you were not to remember.”

She peeked out from under the covers to look up imploringly at Scott. “What happened and do I have to do damage control?”

Scott waved a hand in dismissal. “Don’t worry, Peebee’s got that covered. She seemed pretty guilty about it all, actually.” He smirked down at her. “As for what happened – you went around hugging _everyone_ on the habitation deck, especially the angarans, before heading to the club. I hear you invented new dance move: they’re calling it ‘Pathfinding’.”

“Oh gods.” Ryder pushed herself up with a sigh. She didn’t feel particularly hung-over (small blessings, she guessed) but she did feel like she could sleep for another 600 years. “Was that it?”

“Ha, no. After that you went to Operations and ended up going out for drinks with the APEX team. They challenged you to a game of beer-pong, and they also found out that you suck at beer-pong.”

“ _Please_ tell me that was the last of it.”

“Nope. You managed to drag the turian Pathfinder in to the mix, and then you drank some wine meant only for dextros and APEX figured it’d be best to bring you here to have your stomach pumped.”

Ryder’s arms wrapped around her waist protectively and somehow that was what made her the most uncomfortable. “They did what?”

“Don’t worry,” Scott patted her shoulder reassuringly, “they didn’t actually have to do it. Apparently your body was more than happy to digest it.” He eyed her sideways, “What’s with that?”

“Oh, the implant.” Ryder’s hand went automatically to the spot where Lexi had injected her a few days previous.

“And what exactly do you need an implant for?”

Ryder flushed, suddenly realising that she hadn’t told Scott about Vetra. Was that bad? She wasn’t a secret, but with Scott still in recovering it hadn’t seemed like something to trouble him with. “Uh...”

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with that turian that came to visit you while you were unconscious?” Scott asked. At his sister’s confused look he clarified, “Pale skin, red colony markings...”

“Sid,” Ryder said, stamping down on the small spark of hope when she thought that Vetra had returned early. “No, that’s not – that was Sid, Vetra’s little sister. She works in the science department.”

“Vetra?” Scott repeated. “She’s the Tempest’s engineer right?”

Ryder nodded. “Kinda,” her lips quirking in a smile before she could stop it.

“Ahh,” Scott’s eyes widened in understanding, and he smirked. “So it’s _Vetra_ , is it? Didn’t peg you as the type to sleep with her crew, sis.”

She looked down and toyed with the edge of her blanket, trying to hide the blush that crept up her cheeks. He only meant it jokingly, she knew that, but she still couldn’t stop herself from snapping out a brief “stop it” at her brother.

Scott was well-versed in reading her moods and he stilled at her tone, his demeanour switching to surprise instead. “Oh,” he breathed out, “I didn’t mean – I’m sorry, Sara, I-”

“Shut up before you sprain something,” she muttered but it lacked any heat. She looked up to meet her brother’s gaze. “This isn’t some _fling_ , Scott ... Vetra’s important to me,” she finished quietly.

Her brother was quiet for a moment. “Huh,” he said.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just ... I’ve never seen you in love before.”

Ryder’s blush returned even fiercer than before. She grabbed the pillow from behind her and shoved it in her brother’s face. “Shut up,” she grumbled.

Scott just laughed and playfully pushed the pillow back at her. “That’s cute, Sara, really. When do I get to meet her?”

“Ugh, at this rate? Never.”

“If you bring her by before you guys leave the Nexus I promise not to spread word about your antics yesterday.”

“...Fuck.”

 

**DAY FOUR**

 

“Excuse me; have you seen the human Pathfinder around? I’ve been searching for her all morning.”

Kandros hummed thoughtfully. “Pathfinder Ryder? Sorry, she’s not been by here. I can take a message in case we cross paths?”

“Really? Thank you, I just need her to contact me for a brief interview – I’d rather get the full scoop directly from her instead of from the gossip mill!”

Kandros sent the reporter away with the promise to tell Ryder to contact her as soon as she could. Once they were out of hearing range Kandros turned the desk. “That was another reporter. What the hell did you do, Ryder?”

Her head popped up from underneath the desk and she checked to make sure the coast was definitely clear. “I think that one was about me being attached to Peebee’s hip yesterday, but I have no idea what else I did.” She cast another suspicious glance around the station before ducking back in to her sanctuary. She’d made a pillow out of her jacket and was lying back on the floor reading one of the books she’d found in dad’s room.

All of the little tasks and assignments that she had picked up when they had reached the Nexus were completed within a matter of hours, but SAM was monitoring the station so that he could notify her if anything else crept up.

Apart from that Ryder was spending the rest of the day hiding in Operations until stories of her escapades started to simmer down.

Kandros was good company. When she had darted in to his workspace and dived beneath the desk he hadn’t asked any questions, picking up quickly enough what was happening when a salarian reporter rounded the corner seconds afterwards looking for her for an interview.

She’d yet to be kicked out so she made herself comfortable and settled down to read, pleased that she could trust Kandros to divert the over-enthusiastic journalists away from the vicinity.

“You’re going to be waiting here for a while if you’re expecting the gossip to die down anytime soon,” Kandros commented as he moved back around to sit behind the desk. “Your night out is the most exciting thing that’s happened since the angarans moved in.”

“Well then,” Ryder turned over the page she was reading, “I guess I’ll be hanging out here a little while longer.”

“Fine by me,” Kandros said. “Since you’re here, Pathfinder, how about helping me with the paperwork?”

Ryder paused for a moment to weigh up the pros and cons, but she guessed she had nothing else lined up for the day and reading could only hold her attention for so long.

“Sure, why not?”

**

_Three hours later..._

“You said _paperwork_!” Ryder shouted over the gunfire.

Kandros changed his cover to duck behind the wall next to her, reloading his gun as he went. “This is part of the paperwork!”

“Taking out a group of bandits counts as paperwork to you?!”

“It’s all about the semantics, Pathfinder.” He checked over the wall, in between bouts of gunfire.  “This is more fun though, right?”

A grenade landed in front of them and without speaking a word Ryder dove forward to grab it and tossed it back to Kandros who then threw it back over the wall towards its owner. The resulting explosion and screaming was very satisfying.

“Are you kidding me?” Ryder leaned back against the wall, grinning wildly. “If I ever find myself out of a job, I’m coming to see you!”

Kandros laughed, “I’d be lucky to have you on my team, Ryder!” He risked another quick look over the wall. “I count seven of them left. Want to make it interesting?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“The one to take out the most bandits buys the first round.”

Ryder checked she was reloaded and flared up the biotic energy in her left hand. “You’re on!”

**

“Ow ow ow,” Ryder hissed and flinched away from the probing hands.

Lexi rolled her eyes and continued to press the antiseptic against the scrape on her forehead. “Stop being a baby; you’ve had worse.”

“Yeah, but it still stings.”

“Maybe you should think about that the next time you foolishly throw yourself in harm’s way,” Lexi huffed. “Just what did you think you were doing?”

Ryder couldn’t help herself. She blinked innocently at her doctor and said, “Paperwork?”

An amused snort drew her attention to the bed across from hers where Kandros was also being treated. He wilted slightly when Lexi turned to level him with a glare. Ryder was tempted to laugh but then Lexi was facing her again and she realised that provoking the person assigned to take care of her was probably not the best idea.

“The last thing you need is encouragement,” Lexi muttered, focusing on a scratch near her chin (her and Kandros only had shallow flesh wounds, and maybe a few sprained muscles but nothing worse than that). “You’re making it very difficult to keep you alive when I almost want to kill you myself.”

Ryder did laugh at that, turning her head obediently so that Lexi could survey the damage. “Nah, you like me too much for that, doc.”

Lexi smirked a little. “Maybe I’ll tell Vetra the details and _she_ can deal with you.”

“...I’ll behave.”

“That’s better.”

Behind Lexi’s back, Kandros made a small ‘whipped’ motion and pointed at her.

Ryder showed him her middle finger.

 

**DAY FIVE**

_Vetra will be back tomorrow,_ Ryder thought happily. If she played her cards right she could lie-low and hopefully avoid making any more public spectacles before her girlfriend returned.

With that thought in mind Ryder left her father’s room to start heading towards Operations – she was going to check in with Tann to make sure that there is _definitely_ nothing else that he needs one before the Tempest leaves the Nexus because if he interrupts her and Vetra one more time then Ryder is going to go on a rampage.

She was barely more than a few steps from the tram when she heard a _yip!_ from behind her, and she spun around in surprise.

There, sitting on the floor right behind her, was a tiny adhi. Or at least that’s what she assumed it was. The colouration is right, but the plate that would run along its back was barely more than a bump and it’s legs were short and stumpy.

“It appears to be hatchling, Pathfinder,” SAM supplied.

“You don’t say,” Ryder responded. “The thing’s barely bigger than a cat.” She brought out her scanner to sweep the room. “Any idea where it came from?”

SAM spoke up at the same time that her scanner beeped at an open crate in the corner. “Supplies stolen by bandits from Kadara were returned three weeks ago; however they overlooked the egg hidden at the bottom of the crate. Judging by the heat signatures from the shell fragments, it appears that the adhi has hatched within the last few hours.”

“Huh.” Her omni-tool beeped at her to remind her of her meeting. “Ah, crap. SAM is it going to be safe in here?”

“The adhi is contained. I will notify the relevant area to come and collect it.”

“Thanks, SAM.” Ryder cast one last glance over the creature and it stared back at her, its head tilted slightly to the side.

 _It is rather cute,_ she thought as the tram doors closed.

**

“Well that was useless,” Ryder muttered as they moved away from Tann’s desk. Cora had joined her for the brief meeting where Tann had done nothing more than say ‘If anything comes up I will be sure to contact you’, and Ryder trying to argue with ‘You have other Pathfinders here! Ask them to help! Stop dragging me back and forth across Helius and stop interrupting me when I’m about to get laid!’

Okay, so she didn’t exactly say that but the sentiment was there and that’s what counts.

Cora hummed in agreement as they walked down the steps. “You would think that with three other Pathfinders in front of him he would ask for their assistance instead of waiting for you to travel back to the Nexus.”

“Maybe I can just refuse some of his requests if we think that one of the others can handle it fine,” Ryder said. That would probably involve a lot of pushing on her end, but it wasn’t as if the other Pathfinders were completely inexperienced – if anything, they were more prepared for this gig than she was. The Director would need to stop taking the risk of waiting for her to return to the Nexus to deal with his problems and actually make use of the assets he had right in front of him.

Cora patted her shoulder sympathetically and they walked back out into Operations. “We’ll do what we can,” she agreed. “But first ... um ...”

Ryder paused and looked back at her. “Cora? What’s wrong?”

Her second blinked in surprise and pointed at a spot on the floor just in front of them. “So ... that’s different.”

Ryder looked round and found what Cora was pointing at.

It was the hatchling that she had come across on the Hyperion, sitting right there on the floor and gazing up at her with big eyes.

“Uh ... SAM?”

“I am unsure how the adhi followed you here without notifying either of us,” SAM said. “I have just received a report from the Hyperion stating that they have searched the area and they have been unable to locate the hatchling.”

“No shit,” Ryder sighed. Okay this was simple, she could handle this. She kneeled in front of the creature and reached out to it and it made a happy-sounding warble as it bounded towards her. It butted its head against her outstretched hand and gave a happy rumble. Ryder risked placing her hands on the underside of its belly and when the adhi didn’t try to bite or scratch, she scooped it up and held it against her chest where it seemed content to remain.

“SAM, any ideas?”

“We could temporarily relocate the adhi to the residential quarters no longer in use by Peebee,” SAM suggested, “and I will attempt to form a solution for how the creature will be dealt with.”

Ryder grimaced a bit. “That sounded ominous,” she said. “You’re talking about relocating it, not killing it, right?”

“That is correct, Pathfinder.”

“Okay then. Let’s move.”

**

Ryder had been sitting in Peebee’s old room for almost an hour now, watching the adhi entertain itself by exploring the objects left behind by her friend. It attempted to crawl under the bed but Ryder had quickly gripped its tail and tugged it back, unsure if Peebee had properly cleared out the room and not willing to risk accidentally poisoning the creature. It had also napped briefly, curled up contentedly in Ryder’s lap, and it was currently attempting to climb up the couch. Ryder winced as the sound of ripping fabric echoed through the room. The thing sure had a strong grip with those claws.

“Hey buddy,” Ryder called out to it as she reached in to the plastic bag she’d brought with her. SAM had suggested a series of meats which wouldn’t disagree with the adhi and she’s been using the food to distract it when it got too excitable. “You still hungry?”

The hatchling sniffed the air and jumped down from the couch, landing ungracefully on the floor before waddling over to Ryder. It placed itself in her lap again and eagerly ate up the food from her hand and made little whining noises which Ryder took as a request for more.

“Pathfinder,” SAM pipped up from her head.

“Tell me you’ve got good news, SAM,” Ryder said. She scratched under the adhi’s chin and smiled at the little happy purr it gave.

“I have what you would refer to as good news and bad news.”

Ryder sighed again – she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “You know what? Hit me with the good news first.” The creature seemed to be settling down for another nap.

“Previous adhi have been successfully raised by the bandits from infancy to adulthood and remained domestic. Their loyalty has been compared to that of earth’s dogs or the krogan’s varren, and therefore it is not a concern to the safety of the Nexus.”

“Okay, that’s pretty good,” Ryder agreed. “And the bad news?”

SAM was quiet for a moment. “The adhi form a strong bond with the first life-form that they see upon hatching,” it said, “and if they are parted from their bonded on a long-term basis during their infancy, the creature dies.”

Ryder froze. “Are you saying this thing has imprinted on me?”

“Yes, Pathfinder.”

She looked down at the slumbering hatchling in her arms.

So much for keeping out of trouble.

“Fuck. SAM, what do I do?”

SAM paused for a moment, and Ryder was definitely projecting on to the AI because it almost seemed hesitant about what it was going to say next. “One option is to leave the adhi her in the care of another until the creature perishes.”

Ryder’s blood ran cold at the thought. This helpless creature had been unfortunate enough to imprint on her, and she couldn’t essentially _murder_ an infant because she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The adhi rumbled in its sleep and snuggled closer to Ryder’s stomach. She could feel the fondness sweep through her against her better judgement. “I can’t do that, SAM. What are my other options?”

“The Tempest is sizeable enough to host a fully grown adhi, with the proper provisions, of course.”

“...Okay. Option two it is. Better let the team know.”

“Yes, Pathfinder.”

**

“So ... we have another pet?” Suvi asked, gazing curiously at the adhi cradled in Ryder’s arms. “We’re turning in to a bit of a menagerie, what with Jaal’s rabbit and now this.”

“There is a concern with how the adhi’s acid will affect the integrity of the ship,” Kallo commented.

“SAM said she won’t start producing acid for another 12 months,” Ryder explained, “and there’s supplement we could put in her food to make the acid less toxic.”

“Or we could just train her!” Peebee swooped in and scooped the adhi out of Ryder’s arms. She was the first member of the crew to touch the creature, though Ryder really shouldn’t have been surprised - Peebee was all about the weird and the wonderful. “I’ve heard that adhi are incredibly intelligent – it shouldn’t be too hard to teach her that spitting acid inside is bad, or to only spit it at the bad guys. Isn’t that right?” Peebee cooed at the infant, cradling her like a baby. “Who’s gonna fight the good fight? Is it you? Yes it is!”

SAM had done a preliminary scan on the adhi and confirmed that it was female, which thankfully meant that she shouldn’t grow as big as the ones they’ve seen before which have predominantly been male. There had still been a bit of concern with brining the creature onboard but so far she hadn’t made any attempts to either bite or claw her way through the furniture.

“Have you thought of a name?” Cora asked. She had stepped closer to Peebee and was scratching the adhi under her chin.

“Maybe?” Ryder said. She had been thinking of a name ever since SAM had explained that the adhi would need to leave with them or it would die. The crew looked at her expectantly. “I thought about calling her ‘Dexter’.”

“Dexter?” Suvi repeated. She looked down at the adhi in consideration and then smiled brightly. “It’s perfect!”

“Pathfinder,” SAM spoke up, “the shuttle from Kadara has docked early and is preparing for disembarkation.”

“It’s back?” Ryder grinned. “Will you guys watch Dexter for me for a while?”

Peebee waved her off. “Go see the love of your life. We’ll take good care of the baby.”

**

Vetra was walking out of the docking bay when Ryder spotted her. She dashed across the hall to wrap her arms around Vetra’s neck with a squeal that she would feverently deny making later. Vetra chuckled as she caught her and wrapped her arms around the human’s waist in return, lifting off the ground slightly.

“I take it you missed me,” Vetra said nuzzling her face against the juncture of Ryder’s neck.

“You have no idea,” she replied, pulling back a little. Vetra lowered her so that her feet were touching the ground again, but Ryder used the hands around the turian’s neck to bring their girlfriends brow down to rest against hers. “You are never allowed to leave me alone for that long again. It was _awful_!”

Vetra hummed as she rubbed their brows together. “Oh really? So you didn’t have a wild night on the town with Peebee while I was gone?”

“...you know about that?”

“Kadara has access to Nexus news; of course I know.”

Ryder squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. “I was well behaved the rest of the time, I swear.”

“Sure.”

Ryder couldn’t help but smile and she leaned in closer to kiss Vetra softly. She froze momentarily when she remembered that they were in full view of everyone currently in the habitation decks and panicked. They hadn’t discussed how public they were going to be with their relationship and this might be a step too far.

Vetra just sighed and deepened the kiss, unconcerned with the gossiping that was no doubt about to start around them as one of her hands pressed against Ryder’s lower back to bring their bodies closer. When they broke off to breathe Ryder was starting to feel a little warm.

“I missed you too, by the way,” Vetra smiled.

“Yeah?” Ryder looked up at her slyly. She scratched her fingers slightly under Vetra’s fringe and made her girlfriend shudder. “How about we go back to the Tempest and get reacquainted?”

“Hmm, that sounds like a good idea.” Vetra paused, glancing over Ryder’s shoulder. “I just have one question though.”

“What?”

“Who’s your friend?”

Ryder looked back over her shoulder.

Dexter was sitting on the ground behind them, looking up in curiosity.

“Ah ... how do you feel about pets?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be an interlude for me. It was going to be a short update about how Ryder keeps getting dragged into mischief. It ... kinda got away from me.


	4. three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryder and Vetra finally get a moment to themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me, just gonna casually bump up the rating.

Vetra needed some time to move her equipment back into her workspace, and while Ryder would have loved to hang around and distract her lover she knew that Vetra liked to have her space organised and neat for easy access. So Ryder settled for wandering around the Tempest and catching up with the crew and what they had done on their shore leave when they hadn’t been helping her catch rabbits.

Dexter obediently toddled after her throughout the ship, never once straying from her side. The adhi’s immediate devotion to her regardless of her being a different species was a little overwhelming, if she was being honest. She was the Pathfinder! She had a responsibility to make their planets habitable for the arks to live on, which was a huge deal, but this creature that had decided that she would be its caretaker almost felt like _too_ much responsibility.

It was kind of what she had imagined having a child would be like.

Ryder made her way down to her quarters and relaxed as the doors shut behind her. Dexter made an inquisitive noise and went about exploring the room, while Ryder checked over any emails that she may have missed over the last day.

There was nothing urgent that needed her attention and she was just about to push away from the terminal when it _dinged,_ signalling another emailed had arrived.

 

_Hey Sara,_

_I’m almost finished up down here. I can be at yours in 10 minutes, if you feel like getting reacquainted then ;]_

_Vetra_

 

Ryder grinned as she acknowledged the email, already imagining what she would do to her girlfriend when she arrived –

_*BEEP*_

...

She turned and glared at the interface that contained SAM. “If the sentence you’re about to say contains the words ‘Tann’, ‘vid comm’ and ‘urgent’, then I swear I will burn this place to the ground.”

There was a rather long pause.

“...I am unsure how to proceed, Sara.”

Ryder groaned and dropped her head to rest it against the desk. “You have got to be kidding me. What does he need?”

“I am unaware,” SAM admitted. “He only stated that it was urgent.”

“We haven’t even been gone for an hour,” she muttered. “Tell him he’ll have to give me ten minutes; I need to find someone to watch Dexter.”

“Of course, Sara.”

She typed out a quick apology to Vetra and scooped up the adhi, checking in with Peebee if she could take her for a while.

She was going to give Tann a piece of her mind.

**

When Vetra found her thirty minutes later in the meeting space, Ryder was just finishing up her rant at the Director.

Ryder felt a bit flushed from the anger, but she wasn’t stopping to let the Director interrupted because _somebody_ needed to call him out.

“You _can’t_ just ask us to turn around when we’re off to Eos to take out an Architect because it’s affecting their water supply, _especially_ if you’re only asking me to come back and make a statement on ‘togetherness’ or whatever the hell you’re calling it. Addison has always been happy with a recorded statement, so why can’t you?”

“Ryder-”

“Oh, and another thing!” she interrupted. “You have _three_ other Pathfinders there who have received a lot more training that I ever had so why you keep asking for my opinion over theirs is fucking insane.”

Tann was quiet for a beat (probably to make sure she had finished rambling). “The citizens take comfort in hearing reassurance from the Pathfinder currently out there,” Tann explained, but there was something almost like grudging acceptance in his tone, “however I concede your point. I will still need to request your presence at times, Pathfinder, but we will assess our resources closer at hand before we do so.”

Ryder thanked him and Tann ended the call. Ryder breathed a sigh of relief. Tann might have actually gotten the hint this time.

“You know, you’re very attractive when you’re angry.”

She startled slightly, not realising that Vetra had arrive. Then she registered her words and blushed. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Just the end,” Vetra said as she moved around the table to stand in front of Ryder. “Sounds like you’ve had enough of his bullshit.”

“He just doesn’t get what it’s like out here, how serious it is,” Ryder said with a sigh. “Well, he kind of does, but when an outpost calls and says they haven’t had fresh water in a while and that they’ve spotted an Architect...”

“I know.” Vetra pulled her close and rubbed a hand soothingly up and down her back. “What he considers a priority, you consider menial. You seemed to give him a pretty big piece of your mind. I’m sorry I didn’t get to hear the whole thing.”

Ryder laughed. “I think the whole of Operations heard it. Kandros sent me an email asking if everything was alright ‘cause he walked passed Tann’s office and said he could hear me screaming’. I wasn’t screaming, by the way.”

“No, I would have heard,” Vetra agreed.

Ryder leaned back a little so that she could stare straight into Vetra’s eyes. “Now that we know he won’t be interrupting us,” she begun, training her hands down Vetra’s carapace, slowly, “we’ve got about 12 hours to relax before we reach Eos. Any ideas?” Her hands stopped just shy of the turian’s waist, appreciating how Vetra was only clothed in her casual outfit as opposed to her armour.

Vetra grinned and walked Ryder backwards until she was pressing the human against the meeting table. “I’ve got a few ideas.” She leaned in further, forcing Ryder to bend back slightly. “All of them involve considerably less clothing.” She leaned down to nip at Ryder’s jaw line, before soothing the sore with a kiss. “What do you think?”

Ryder let her hands trail down to caress Vetra’s hips, relishing the groan that she was rewarded with. “I think that’s a great idea.”

**

The doors to her quarters had barely closed before Ryder found herself slammed back against them and a hot, persistent turian body pressed up against her front. “Holy fuck,” she breathed while she scrambled for purchase on Vetra’s shoulders as her lover began to leave a sinful trail of nips and kisses along her neck. A well-aimed bite at the juncture where her neck and shoulder met left her shivering. “Ah, _Vetra_ -!” Talons trailed down her sides, a little harder than any of her previous touches and the sensation walked a fine line between pleasure-pain.

Ryder _loved it_.

Vetra stopped when she reached her thighs, hands gripping them tightly. “I can’t decide if I want to take my time,” she muttered hotly against Ryder’s ear, “or just fuck you fast and go slow later.”

“ _Hng_ ,” Ryder grunted. “The second one - screw going slow, we’ve waited long enough.”

Vetra chuckled and leaned in to kiss her, slotting their mouths together perfectly and kissing her so deeply that Ryder’s legs were starting to go weak. The turian took care of that though, using her grip on Ryder’s thighs to lift her up.

Ryder wrapped her legs around Vetra’s waist and used the new leverage to bring their bodies closer together. Her girlfriend hummed approvingly and moved her hands to grip Ryder’s ass and grind their hips together.

“ _Oooh_ ,” Ryder whimpered as the barest amount of pressure hit directly on her clit. She moved with the motion, and Vetra ground against her again, a little slower this time but holding them tightly together.

“Sara,” Vetra panted, resting their brows together. “Spirits, I want you so badly.”

“You’ve got me,” Ryder promised, trailing her hands up to cup Vetra’s face. She circled her hips, enjoying the hot spike the shot through her and Vetra’s groan which she swallowed up with a kiss. “Gods, Vetra,” she panted when they broke off to breathe, “I need you.”

Vetra shuddered, her talons gripping her rear firmly. “I am going to do so many wicked things to you,” she said. Ryder yelped in surprise when the support of the wall behind her back disappeared, but Vetra was holding her securely as they moved across the room, though one hand started to tug insistently at Ryder’s jacket. She obediently shrugged the jacket off her shoulders and threw it on the floor, followed by her scarf.

She deposited Ryder on the centre of the bed and crawled over her, dark eyes of a predator focused directly on the human. Ryder wondered briefly when her brain decided that being hunted was arousing, but really at this point she didn’t care.

Vetra paused over her mid-riff, her talons toying with the hem of her casual shirt as she looked up at Ryder. “I think I already know the answer,” she said teasingly, “but may I?”

Ryder made a show of debating the request. “Gosh, I don’t know,” she said tilting her head in thought. “Don’t you think we’re moving too fast?”

Vetra smiled and slid her talons under the cloth. “If that’s the case I can leave you alone to take care of yourself?” The turian laughed when Ryder cursed and hurriedly removed her shirt, almost getting her head caught in the collar, and her sports bra quickly followed and then she was lying on the bed naked from the waist up.

Vetra’s eyes travelled over her chest so slowly that Ryder started to feel a little self-conscious, and her arms made an aborted movement to cover herself up. Vetra noticed and she gave her a reassuring smile. “You are beautiful, Sara,” she said, dipping her head to kiss the valley between her breasts. “This part of you is perfect, just like everything else. Are they ... sensitive? I read that it differs between humans.”

Ryder shrugged slightly. “They’re a little sensitive,” she explained. “You can touch, if you want...”

“I want to very much,” Vetra confirmed and she begun to trail one of her hands up her torso, talons scratching slightly along the way until she stopped just shy of the underside of Ryder’s left breast. She paused to consider for a moment before lightly running a talon along the delicate skin there. Ryder sighed happily and Vetra, encouraged by the noise, reached her whole hand up to cup her and squeezed gently.

Ryder arched up to push into the movement, her nipples already tightening at the few soft caresses. Vetra apparently noticed the different texture against her palm and she pulled away to investigate, rubbing the nub carefully between her fingers. She jumped slightly when Ryder gave a sharp cry.

“Are you-?”

“Holy shit,” Ryder breathed, “that felt awesome.”

She had never really cared for a partner touching her breasts, but she had never been with a turian before. The different, slightly coarser texture of Vetra’s hide was creating a whole new myriad of sensations in her body and Ryder had the pleasurable thought about what those fingers would be like inside her.

“Really?” Vetra asked, surprised. “You sure? Cause I’ll stop if you don’t like it.”

Ryder growled a little. “Don’t you dare,” she said, trying to arch back up into Vetra’s touch. “Keep going, _please_.”

Reassured, Vetra switched her attention to the other breast, exploring it in the same fashion and when she repeated the manoeuvre Ryder groaned and shuddered. Vetra, obviously feeling a bit more confident, leaned down to begin placing soft kisses along the rise of her breast, circling closer towards the centre. She gently bit Ryder’s nipple when she reached it (Ryder twitched and moaned because _those teeth, oh gods_ ) and then proceeding to roll her tongue around the nub to ease the pain.

Ryder was started to pant now. The heat between her legs, which had gone ignored in favour of focusing on Vetra’s exploration, was starting to make itself known again. And when Vetra moved over to repeat the same action on her other nipple Ryder couldn’t stop herself from clenching her thighs together, trying to relieve some of the tension.

Vetra chuckled. She moved back up to place a light kiss on Ryder’s mouth, while also shifting so that one of her legs was wedged between Ryder’s thighs. “Getting impatient?”

“What happened to not going slow?” she countered, trying to pretend that her hips weren’t attempting to ride against Vetra’s leg. It didn’t matter a second later, when Vetra very purposefully pressed her leg against her crotch and Ryder whimpered at the brief contact that moved away too soon.

Vetra was being a fucking _tease_ now. “I changed my mind,” she said. She sat up on her knees and trailed her hands down Ryder’s torso, before stopping at her hips and hooking her talons under the waistband of her trousers. “Besides, it’s more fun to watch you squirm.” She emphasized her words with another press of her thigh, this time keeping the pressure there and watching as Ryder gasped and pushed back on the contact.

“Vetra,” she whimpered, her hips still grinding down, “ _please_.”

“Please what, Sara?”

Did Vetra want her to beg? Fuck, she was so far past gone right now that she couldn’t even care less about her dignity.

Ryder moaned long and loud, arching her body up to get as much contact with her girlfriend as possible. “Fuck me, Vetra,” she asked, her dark eyes gazing directly into Vetra’s. She rotated her hips against the thigh still wedged between her own and gasped, “Gods, I need you in me _right now_. Sweetheart, _please_!”

Vetra cursed and started tugging on her trousers urgently ( _Vetra likes to be begged – noted,_ Ryder thought gleefully) and she pulled them off along with her panties in one move, before climbing back up to drop a kiss right about the small thatch of hair between her thighs.

“Yes,” Ryder breathed. She let her hands move to caress the back of Vetra’s head. “Do you, y’know, need any directions or advi- _HOLYSHIT!_ ”

Vetra hummed from where she was currently sucking a kiss onto her clit, already engorged with need. She gave it a soft nip that left Ryder trembling. “Thanks, but I think I’m good,” she said with amusement.

“Uh-huh,” Ryder panted, still a little dazed from the onslaught of sensation. “Okay, yeah. You’re good.”

“Did I break you already?”

“Wha?”

Vetra laughed, smirking up at her girlfriend. “Well, that’s good to know. Can’t wait to see what the finale is like.” And with that she lowered her head and licked along her opening in one long swipe.

Ryder lost track of time after that, only able to focus on the feeling of Vetra’s rough tongue tracing patterns along her slit or curling around her nub in long stroking motions, leaving her a shuddering, whimpering mess.

She almost came right then when Vetra’s tongue started probing gently at her opening, testing the waters before finding Ryder’s body more than ready and pushing her tongue further in and _holy shitfuck_ how had she forgotten how bloody _long_ a turian’s tongue was?!

“Oh my god,” Ryder gasped. When her body couldn’t decide whether or not to move closer to the stimulation Vetra’s hands wrapped around her hips, holding her steady before she started to thrust her tongue in and out slowly, curling up slightly on the way out. Ryder trembled, feeling the tension beginning to wind up in her core as she eagerly bucked against her lovers mouth. “Fuck, Vetra – _ah_! Ohmygod, you – _why did you stop_?”

“Trust me,” Vetra said, moving up to suck at her clit while pressing a finger against her sex. She trailed her talon through the liquid teasingly before pushing in and retracing the path her tongue just took.

“ _Shit_!” Ryder’s hands fisted in the bed sheets, trying find purchase as she moved to meet each thrust of Vetra’s hand. Her finger was larger, better that anything Ryder ever could have done to herself on her own and could _feel_ the texture of her turian’s hide against her walls, and the almost-dangerous glide of her talon along her delicate flesh as she dragged her finger out. On the next thrust in her talon caught on her spot inside and Ryder’s cut-off scream gave Vetra a moment of pause. “I swear, if you fucking stop now I’ll – _aaah!_ ”

Vetra’s finger had re-entered her and she carefully traced the bump with the tip of her talon, watching curiously as Ryder dissolved into a mess of moaning and shaking. “Huh,” Vetra said, as if her girlfriend wasn’t coming apart on her hand, “the data I read didn’t mention anything about this.”

Ryder gave a brief laugh amongst her gasps. “Typical,” she muttered. Vetra continued to caress the bump and Ryder felt her orgasm start to coil tighter inside. “Please. Sweetheart, I’m so close, please.”

Vetra shifted, moving so that she was face-to-face with Ryder again. She thrust her hand back in once, her thumb circling round her clit. Ryder almost sobbed at the sensations, her release just waiting to break. “I want to watch you,” Vetra breathed. “Come on, Sara, for me.”

Her hand started moving again and Ryder met her thrust for thrust, each breath becoming more and more ragged as the pleasure simultaneously coiled tighter and also rushed along her body from her head to her toes.

Her hips started to lose their rhythm as her body shook harder. Ryder released her grip on the sheets to curl her hands round Vetra’s and tug her down so their brows were pressed together. “So close,” she whimpered, her hips giving a particularly violent jerk. “ _Vetra.”_

“Let go, Sara,” Vetra growled. She thrust her hand in once, twice, rubbing hard against her clit and g-spot at the same time and Ryder broke with a scream.

The strength of her orgasm hit her with surprise, despite feeling how tight the tension was building up within her. She sobbed and gasped as her body instinctively ground down against the hand still inside her, her walls clasping tight around Vetra’s finger while her thumb rubbed gently at her clit, coaxing her through wave after wave of pleasure so intense that she almost blacked out.

Her trembling eventually subsided, and Vetra gently pulled out but not before giving her g-spot one last scrape of her talon. The sensation was almost too much and Ryder whimpered, her body giving one more shudder before finally relaxing.

“So,” Vetra said from above, sounding as breathless as Ryder felt, “good?”

She tried to reply with something along the lines of ‘are you freaking kidding me?’ but all she managed was, “Uuuff.” Oxygen was slowing returning to her brain while her body remained lethargic and humming with bliss.

Vetra smiled, a touch of pride alighting her features. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said.

“Christ,” Ryder breathed out, feeling returning to her limbs. “I have never come so hard in my entire life.” She stretched languidly, grinning up at her girlfriend still hovering above her. “Come here,” she demanded, pulling Vetra down to lavish her with kisses. Vetra laughed and went with it, nuzzling against her cheek. “I love you so damn much,” Ryder said, finishing with a hard kiss to her mandible, “but I think it’s my turn now.”

Vetra breathed in sharply. “Can you even move?” she tried to joked.

Ryder replied with a sly grin and she hooked a leg over Vetra’s waist, quickly using her leverage to flip their positions. Vetra gazed up at her in surprise, stunned by the sudden movement, and Ryder took advantage of her distraction to grind down against where she knew Vetra’s groin-plates would be open and ready for her.

Vetra gasped, and her hands came up to grasp the human’s waist, frantically looking for purchase while Ryder continued to grind down.

Ryder grinned. “Yep. Pretty sure I can still move,” she said happily.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Vetra gets her turn next time ;D
> 
> This the filthiest thing I have ever written. I regret nothing.
> 
> Comments and criticism appreciated!


	5. four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryder gets her opportunity to learn a bit more about turian biology.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We swap to Vetra's POV after the set of **

“Off, get these off now!” Ryder tugged insistently at Vetra’s clothes, growling when she couldn’t find any hems or clasps that would lead her to her girlfriend’s hide. “What is – how do your clothes even work?!”

Vetra chuckled and sat up so that Ryder was forced to straddle her instead. “Here,” she took one of Ryder’s hands and led it to her side, revealing a clasp that had been hidden beneath fabric. She unhinged it and the ones below it, finally loosening the top enough to begin slipping it off Vetra’s arms. The garment was tossed to the floor, and Ryder’s put her hands on Vetra’s shoulders and gently pushed the turian back on the bed again.

Ryder’s breath left her in a rush as she gazed finally upon the bare carapace. “Whoa,” she said. She ran her hands over Vetra’s chest, noting every ridge and bump that made up her lover.

Vetra was incredible. Her tawny-grey hide was both soft and firm, small lines running across her carapace showing where each plate was separated. The plates rose and fell easily with her breathing, and as Ryder traced her hands further down her torso she noted the plates seemed to be more sensitive, if the hitch in Vetra’s breathing was anything to go by.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” Ryder said, smiling up at her girlfriend. “I don’t really know ... tell me what feels good for you?”

Vetra took Ryder’s hands in her own and grinned. “Everything you do feels good,” Vetra said, but she guided Ryder’s hands up to rest on the sides of her carapace. “But since you asked ... do you feel the edges of the plates?” Ryder nodded, her fingers carefully tracing the small gaps between each plate. “That’s my skin, right underneath it. It’s really sensitive, kind of like my neck but more intense.”

“Is it like that between every plate?” Ryder asked. Her fingers traced up and down the gaps along the front of her carapace.

“Yeah,” Vetra breathed, “it does.”

Ryder hummed and leaned down, running her tongue between the plates that made up Vetra’s chest.

“ _Spirits,_ Sara!”

“Was that okay?”

Vetra laughed in disbelief and wound one hand through Ryder’s hair. “Yes, that was okay,” she agreed, pressing into Ryder’s touch. “You don’t have to be so gentle, either. I won’t break.”

“Noted,” Ryder breathed. Vetra’s subharmonics were trembling with arousal and it was fanning the embers in her core once again but she pushed that to the back of her mind. She wanted to focus entirely on her girlfriend.

Ryder traced a path her tongue down Vetra’s torso while her hands ran between the plates on her sides, making Vetra arch and gasp. Vetra didn’t seem as vocal as Ryder had been – she’ll check later if that was the norm for turians or if it was another of Vetra’s quirks – but the little breathy noises she made and her twitching hands threaded through Ryder’s hair we’re more than enough indication to let her know she was getting in right.

She reached the high waist of Vetra’s pants and was relieved to find that they had just the one zip on the front which she began tugging down. She raised an eyebrow and grinned up at the turian to ask, “No underwear?”

Vetra laughed. “It’s not really a concern for turians.” She was wriggling her hips to help Ryder remove the last item of clothing, showing her how to navigate the spurs on her legs.

Ryder threw the pants to join the top on the floor and Ryder paused, taking in the full glory of a naked Vetra Nyx. “ _Whoa._ ”

Vetra was _amazing_. Her body was almost entirely covered by her tawny-grey hide and if she looked hard enough Ryder could make out where each and every plate met going from her waist all the way down to her toes. Ryder planned to explore every single one of those joinings at a later point, but going back to her waist...

“Scared yet?” Vetra asked trying for confident, but Ryder could hear the undertone of nerves in her voice. “I get that we’re different, if you’d rather not-”

“Vetra I love you, but please shut up,” Ryder interrupted. She moved up the bed to bring herself closer to the turian’s hips. Her hands rested on Vetra’s thighs as she moved in for a better look. “We’re not that different ... not really.”

And they really weren’t. Apart from the protective plates and the positioning of Vetra’s sex the rest of it seemed very familiar. Vetra’s plates had spread apart in her arousal to reveal her opening, glistening with moisture and tinged blue by the blood flowing through her, and instead of her opening being hidden between her legs it was almost entirely on the front of her body. Ryder’s brief session on biology mentioned this, that the positioning of their legs made it unfavourable from an evolutionary standpoint to have their reproductive organs between their legs.

But really all Ryder could think about was how when she had been grinding down on Vetra earlier she had been _right over her opening_ , and then she wondered if the asari had brought more than their dextro-levo implants with them – like any of their _equipment_ from the various pleasures chains that they owned in the Milky Way...

“There’s that thinking face again,” Vetra said, this time her voice dripping with amusement. “What are you planning?”

Ryder swallowed and gazed up at her girlfriend, her eyes so dark with arousal that it made Vetra inhale sharply. “I’m thinking of how awesome it is that we’re so different. _Fuck_ , I have so many ideas about what I could do to you.” Her eyes dropped down to Vetra’s sex. “But first – anything in particular that I should know?”

“Uh,” Vetra stuttered, flustered by Ryder’s words, “apart from the obvious; touching around the outside feels good, it’s really sensitive. There’s a – _Sara_!”

The Pathfinder smiled innocently from where she had started to lightly trace her finger over the soft flesh that had been revealed. “Sorry,” she said, completely unapologetic, “I couldn’t resist. What else?”

“Um, there’s a cluster of nerves – kind of like the ones you have – it’s at the top, but its hidden between the folds...” Vetra trailed off as Ryder added a bit of scratching to her movement and Vetra trembled. “Sara, please...”

“Yeah,” Ryder said, “okay, yeah, I’ve got you.”

Ryder ran her fingers along her slit, marvelling at the how the fluid was slicker than her own, and she pressed in slightly at her opening. Vetra cursed, her hips jerking up to meet the pressure and forcing Ryder’s fingers deeper. “Shit, you’re so tight,” Ryder breathed in amazement. Vetra’s walls were clamping down hot around her two fingers, and as she drew her fingers out and thrust back in again Vetra’s hips rose to meet her, her channel just as tight as before. “Christ, is that normal?”

“For a turian? Yes,” Vetra managed to reply between pants. She was unabashedly riding the human’s fingers, trying to take her deeper on each thrust and Ryder certainly didn’t deny her. After the next thrust in Ryder curled her fingers upwards so that she dragged across Vetra’s upper wall on the pull out. Vetra gave a startled gasp followed by a moan when Ryder located the bundle of nerves that Vetra had mentioned neared her opening. “That was ... new,” she admitted, sounding a little surprise.

“This?” Ryder repeated the action, this time drawing her fingers back slowly so she could watch Vetra’s head fall back as she gave a full body shudder. “I’m guessing it feels good?”

“Yes,” Vetra hissed. She rolled into the movement when Ryder repeated it again, though instead of continuing to move Ryder paused and rubbed her fingers against the sweet spot near her opening, pressing against it firmly to draw a moan from Vetra’s mouth.

Then without any warning Ryder lowered her head and ran her tongue up the turian’s sex, and Vetra bucked so hard she nearly knocked Ryder backwards off the bed.

She started to apologize but Ryder was laughing, moving back to reassume her position between Vetra’s legs. “I take it that was good as well,” she commented, getting herself comfortable again. “I think I’d enjoy finding restraints strong enough to hold you own, if only to avoid getting a concussion.”

Vetra’s breathing hitched again. “You caught me by surprise,” she argued.

“Well ... consider this your official warning,” Ryder said and she leaned in to taste Vetra again. Her own moan of satisfaction almost drowned out Vetra’s groan. Her hips bucked again but not as violently as last time, so Ryder hummed happily and continued licking into her girlfriend.

Vetra was sweet, with a slight metallic tang that Ryder knew from their many make-out sessions, and at the same time her slick was both alien and completely normal to her. She tasted Vetra thoroughly, pressed her tongue in as far as she could, and then she moved up slightly and pressed her tongue in again but this time she focused solely on that little bundle of nerves. Vetra was already a twitching, gasping mess and the shift in sensation caused her to curse and bring her hands up to thread through Ryder’s hair again.

She slipped two fingers into Vetra’s entrance and fucked into her while sucking on her sweet spot. Vetra's small keening sound was _incredible_ and she started to rock her hips into the movement and Ryder moved with her, never letting up on her focus of what she could only assume was the turian version of a clit.

“H-harder,” Vetra panted, her hips jerking out of rhythm. “ _Sara_...”

“Harder, got it,” Ryder mumbled before returning to lapping at her clit in time with her hand thrusting faster into her opening. It didn’t take long before she could feel Vetra’s already tight passage begin to clamp harder on her fingers, and Ryder moaned, the sensations travelling through Vetra’s clit and making her groan, her subharmonics so deep with her arousal that Ryder felt like _she_ might come again just from listening to her.

Ryder was fucking Vetra hard now, and when she slipped a third finger in Vetra gave a cut-off cry and a breathless plea, so Ryder sucked hard, forfeiting the thrusting to rock into her instead, putting her whole body behind the movement. She could feel how tense Vetra was inside, how she only needed a little bit more to push her over that edge so without moving Ryder looked up, eyes connecting with Vetra’s, and she used her free hand to caress the sensitive skin around her sex.

Vetra came with a strained shout, calling Ryder’s name as she bucked up against the human’s mouth to chase the sensations which Ryder delivered on. She clamped down almost painfully on Ryder’s fingers but she didn’t let up on her rocking, coaxing the sensations out of Vetra for as long as possible until Vetra sighed and relaxed back on to the bed. She used the hands still tangled in Ryder’s hair to gently tug her back up.

Ryder went willingly, a slightly smug grin on her face. “So ... good?”

“ _Very_ good,” Vetra corrected, pulling Ryder down to kiss her thoroughly. She groaned at the taste of herself in Ryder’s mouth and ran her talons down Ryder’s naked back, eliciting a shiver from the human while she continued to lick, cleaning up every trace of her from Ryder’s face. “Spirits, that’s was glorious.”

Ryder smiled again but it was a bit on the shyer side this time. “You sure?” she asked, looking away. “Cause I didn’t really do too much of my own research, so I wasn’t too sure what was typical for a turian.”

“Sara?” Vetra waited until Ryder made eye contact with her again. She gently guided their heads forwards so that their brows were gently pressed together. “In your own words: I’ve never come so hard in my entire life.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Vetra kissed her cheek before rearranging them both so that they were lying face-to-face on their sides and pulled the blanked up to cover them.

It was probably only about 1600 ship time but Ryder felt like she could sleep for days. Her limbs were still kind of tingly from her own release and the heat was simmering in her groin again but she was already half asleep. She snuggled closer to Vetra, sighing happily when her girlfriend wrapped an arm around her in return. “Love you, Vetra,” Ryder mumbled, her eyes slipping closed.

She couldn’t see her face, but Ryder could hear the affection in her tone when Vetra replied, “I love you too, Sara. Hey – at least we didn’t get interrupted this time.”

Ryder huffed out a laugh.

**

Vetra woke first a few hours later, the familiar hum of the ship surrounding her and the sight of stars shooting past above. Sara was snoring gently beside her, still sound asleep, so Vetra took a moment to study her love.

Sara was a surprisingly deep sleeper for someone who could be up and on the move at a moment’s notice, almost as if her body was grasping at the opportunity for rest while it could until the next crisis awakened the Pathfinder. Her faced was mashed against the pillow and Vetra was pretty sure she could see drool, but she couldn’t be any more in love with the woman before her.

Vetra hadn’t been lying when she told Sara that she had been amazing, but she had avoided the whole truth. In general, it took a lot of effort to get a turian aroused to the point where their groin plates would begin to shift, and Vetra hadn’t been sure if it was maybe the slow-build up of all of their encounters over the last few weeks that had made her so ready so fast, but as she looked down at Sara - bed sheet pooled at the waist, exposing her chest and a mark on her neck that Vetra had left by accident, her hair mussed by turian hands – Vetra could already feel the beginnings of the familiar shift, the sight of a blessed out Sara sleeping off an orgasm that had been _her_ doing enough to make her feel ready for another round. She'd heard that humans release a pheromone when aroused, something which turians didn't do, and she decided that she'd need to do a bit more research to see if it was possible for Sara's pheromones to make her turian biology ... more receptive. There was certainly an underlying scent Vetra could detect at times which hadn't been present before their courtship began, and she was sorely tempted to wake the human and scent her all over to see if she could maybe catalogue her own body's responses.

But Sara needed more sleep, Vetra decided, before she would be able to engage in any more strenuous activities. She retrieved her datapad from where she had deposited it on the bedside table earlier, before she had gone up to the meeting room in search of Sara.

Vetra whiled away about thirty minutes, going over the requisition and ammo orders for the Tempest, along with the not-so conventional orders that she had arranged with Kadara Port for another box of Blast-Ohs! and a stash of novels that she remembered Sara mentioning that she’d read in her teens and how she missed having a paperback copy. Vetra was quite eager to obtain those – she planned on making Sara read them out loud to her, when they could get quiet moments between missions.

With the requisitions done she moved on to her emails. Most of them were generic updates about the Nexus and the outposts, but some were filtered under the social tab.

There was the typical email from Sid, gushing about how she spent time with Sara on the Nexus and she was so lovely and perfect for Vetra and hey, was there any chance Sid could get a spot on the Tempest some point in the future because she was getting cabin fever from being in the one spot for so long and really the science was _out there_ not in a small office on the Nexus.

The next was an email from Kandros, providing her with a list of mercs who had gone rogue on the various planets that they were due to visit in the next week, an apology for getting her pathfinder scratched up without her permission and a promise to save her a bottle of the rare turian brandy that had been procured by APEX on a recent raid.

All fairly normal emails - or so Vetra thought, until she nearly choked on the air when she read the content of next one:

 

_Vetra_

_I congratulate you on your successful coupling with Ryder! Your enthusiasm is to be admired and respected by all, and it is a gift to have been able to bear witness to such devotion!_

_Jaal_

 

“ _What_?” Vetra whispered in horror. She quickly clicked on the next email from Liam.

 

_So ... yeah. Pretty much everyone on the ship heard that. It only lasted about 5 minutes before we managed to block out the noise but ... yeah._

And then there was a final email from Peebee;

 

_Heeeeeeey V!_

_SO, that may have been my fault? I was doing some tinkering in the cargo bay and I swear I only took my eyes off Dexter for ten seconds but she must have been hungry and started chewing on one of the communication cables and she kind of glitched the system and broke the privacy channel. It was only for a few minutes, I swear!_

_The rest of the crew may not be able to look either of you in the eye for a few days. Why is everyone so weird about sex?_

_Love Peebee <3 xxx_

Vetra groaned, then jumped slightly when she felt Sara shift next to her. Her eyes were blinking open and she smiled up at Vetra when she saw her.

“Hey you,” Sara said, “you look troubled.”

Vetra debated keeping the information to herself, but who knew what kind of emails were waiting for Sara? And she wouldn’t put it past Jaal to not mention this to them in public.

“We may have um, ah-” Vetra began, but finding the best words to use was proving difficult. “There ... may have been an audio malfunction earlier.”

The smile slipped off Sara’s face pretty quickly. “What?” Vetra offered up her datapad, showing Sara the emails that she’d received from their crew. “No no no. Oh my god, how did this - SAM?!”

SAM beeped from his interface in the corner. “The momentary glitch rerouted my systems and I was unable to contact you. I was also hesitant to access our direct channel as you had expressed discomfort at the thought of me using it while you were intimate.”

Sara groaned and rolled over to bury her face in the pillow. “Okay new rule, SAM; if we somehow accidentally provide an audio track to the rest of the crew then _definitely_ notify me. I am never going to live this down,” she whined.

Vetra placed the datapad back on the table then rolled on her side to face the pathfinder, placing a comforting hand on her bare back. “I’m sure everyone will be professional about it,” Vetra tried, but the look Sara shot her told that she didn't believe it. “You’re right – they won’t be. But," she added, her tone dropping lower, "we can always threaten to scandalize them again if they ever bring it up?”

Sara peeked over from the pillow, lips curved up in a smirk. “ _Vetra Nyx_ ,” she purred, eyes dancing with amusement, “I never took you for an exhibitionist.”

Vetra chuckled. She ran her hand gently down the human’s spine, stopping at her lower back and caressing the skin there, smiling when Sara arched up into the movement. “Well – I guess we still have a lot of learning to do.”

Sara’s breath hitched, and Vetra stored away the knowledge that Sara might also be a bit of an exhibitionist. But for now she wanted to spend more time exploring her soft skin and find out what else would make Sara squirm.

Her human appeared on be on the same page as her, as Sara pushed herself upon all fours to lean over and kiss the side of her mandibles, then the flat of her nose and then finally her mouth, her tongue carefully tracing over the sharp points of her teeth.  Vetra hummed her encouragement as Sara straddled her hips. She ran her talons down the human’s back, only stopping once both of her palms were curved over her rear.

Sara leaned back to break their kiss but she remained hovering over Vetra, bracing herself with a hand on either side of her head. “Speaking of learning,” Sara said with a grin, “there’s something I want to try out.”

“I’m all for trying new things,” Vetra agreed, squeezing Sara’s rear in her hands. Her lover inhaled sharply and pushed back against the contact.  All of the little noises and movements that Sara made went straight to Vetra’s core, fanning the embers of arousal that were still simmering in her from earlier, and she could detect a spike in that scent that Sara was unknowingly emitting. “What did you have in mind?”

Sara’s grin turned wicked as she leaned back in to kiss her again, and she rotated her hips, grinding right against Vetra’s groin. Sara kept them pressed tightly together as she started to rock her hips slowly and Vetra moaned into her human’s mouth, her hands on Sara’s rear guiding and encouraging her movements as she rocked back into the contact, her plates loosening gradually.

“Okay,” Vetra panted against Sara’s mouth her mandibles flexing in a grin to match Sara’s. “I like this idea.”

Sara laughed and kissed her some more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So writing Vetra's turn was a bit more difficult because how do turians even work? I've basically gone off of what I've seen on google images and the general anatomic structure of a turian so I hope it's slightly believable. (also I like the idea of Vetra being affected by Ryder's pheromones - like she's a predator smelling something amazing and her body responds by going 'i want some of THAT')  
> My other concern was writing enough for Vetra. Ryder got almost 2k of porn, so Vetra deserved to have that as well.
> 
> One more part to go! Feedback is my nectar :D


	6. five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue Part One.
> 
> **CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL MISSION**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know I said there was one more part to go, but the writing started to get away from me again.

After that it’s like a seal had been broken.

Now that she had drilled it into the Director’s head that he could not always have her at his beck and call she suddenly found herself with a bit more free time – time which she gladly spent having incredible, mind-blowing sex with Vetra.

Like Peebee has said, the human members of the crew skirted around the couple, only interacting with them outside of missions if absolutely necessary, but after a few days of awkward silences and side-glances the issue seemed to resolve itself and everyone would just shake their head in amusement if they caught Ryder and Vetra making bedroom eyes at each other followed by a quick escape with a lame excuse.

Liam had made a few teasing jabs about the unfortunate incident with the comm system and Vetra, true to her word, had made him even more uncomfortable. She dragged Ryder into her room in the cargo bay late one night and sat the human on the edge of her table, pants and underwear quickly discarded on to the floor, and Vetra took her sweet time exploring Ryder using only her tongue. She drew long, loud moans from Ryder’s mouth as she slowly built her up only to stop when she was near the edge. Vetra kept this up a few times and when Ryder finally came she was thrashing so hard that the table rocked and banged into the wall in time with the jerks of her hips.

The next day Liam emailed both Vetra and Ryder to apologise, and promised to never bring up their sex life again if they promised to never mentally scar him again.

The next few weeks passed in a blur after that. Once they dealt with the Architect on Eos they then headed out to help with stop the Roekaar on Havaal, and then after that it was to Voeld to investigate missing medical supplies. All the while they were still trying to chase down the Archon and just when it felt like they weren’t making any headway they came across the Remnant city. Then the Archon stole the Hyperion and after that it was a race to Meridian.

**

“The Archon’s holed up in that room with Scott. Jaal, Drack - I want you in there with me,” Ryder stated, reloading her gun as the crew gathered around her. “The rest of you need to go back and defend the Hyperion. I don’t know what type of security they had on board when they were moved but they’ll need all the help they can get.” She looked at the people gathered around her, armed and ready to go when she said the word. She trusted her crew with her life and they trusted her with theirs, and she prayed to a god that she didn’t believe in that she wasn’t about to get everyone killed.

She love her crew, and she just hoped that she lived through this to see them all again.

“No time to lose,” she said, nodding at them. “Move out, and good luck.”

They shuffled into their designated teams, but Vetra broke away and stepped closer towards Ryder, her gaze worried.

“I should be going with you,” Vetra said, keeping her voice low. “But I know you won’t change your mind.”

Ryder smiled, but it was a sad one. “Jaal and Drack have had the most experience with the kett, it’s only right that I take them with me. Besides ... if things go south in there I’d rather you weren’t involved. Sid needs you alive.”

Vetra had that look on her face again; the one that said she couldn’t believe how she’d managed to find someone that cared about her and Sid so fiercely, but it was also tinged with the distress that she may also be about to lose that person before the day was out. Vetra stepped even closer and wrapped an arm around Ryder’s waist, tugging her into a lose embrace. She knew Ryder could get a bit weird about showing affection in front of her crew at times, so she simply lowered her head to rest their brows together. “You better come back to me,” Vetra said, eyes closed as she relished the feeling of being close to her lover.

“I promise to do everything that I can to return to you,” Ryder said, one hand coming up to grasp the back of Vetra’s neck. “I’m not ready to let go of this just yet.”

They savoured the moment as long as they could before the urgency of the situation set in again. The moved apart and back to their relevant groups, the crew politely pretending that they hadn’t witnessed that (except for Jaal – Ryder was pretty sure he was about to cry). She put her helmet back on and turned back to them once more.

“All right, let’s kick some ass!”

**

Vetra was trying so hard not to panic.

They’d cleared out the kett that had invaded the Hyperion easily enough, but securing the various breaches and rewiring the doors to open again had taken up a lot of their time. The Ark was safe, and there were thankfully few casualties.

But it had been over two hours since they had parted ways with Sara and the Archon’s minions were still flying around in their ships, getting gradually picked off by the many allies that Sara had accumulated up over the last year. It was an impressive effort and Vetra had no immediate concerns that they were going to be overwhelmed by their enemies, but she couldn’t help but feel that Sara should be back by  now – but what did she knew? The Vaults were complicated enough to navigate on other worlds – Spirits know how vast the Vault on Meridian would be.

Still, Vetra couldn’t just hang around doing nothing.

Another hour passed before she decided that that was enough. She grabbed her gun, checked it was loaded and ready to go and made her way to the docking bay door that they had forced their way through earlier. She strode quickly and had just made it outside when she ran straight into a force field that had been hastily thrown up in front of her.

“Where are you going?”

Vetra gritted her teeth and turned to face Cora, standing at the doorway with her hand held out in front of her. “I’m going after Sara,” she stated.

“Ryder ordered that we weren’t to go after her,” Cora said firmly, unwavering in her stance. “She needs us to be here in case anything happens to the Hyperion.”

“The Hyperion is secure. Our comms are down, we haven’t heard _anything_ from her since she entered that Vault and the Archon’s forces are still outside.” She took a step forward, using her height to tower over the human. “ _I’m going after her_.”

Cora didn’t budge, of course. She had trained with the asari commandos and she would give no quarter. Her eyes narrowed and she didn’t retract her barrier. “Stand down, Vetra.”

She wasn’t intentionally trying to intimidate Ryder’s second in command but she _needed_ to go. Some deep-down, primal part of her was crying out in distress because her _compara,_ her _mate_ was in danger and she should be there to protect her.  

Vetra took a deep breath and forced herself to reign in the threatening anger that was trying to take hold. She looked directly at Cora. “I can’t just stand around doing nothing, Cora. She’s risked so much for me – I need to help her.”

“Vetra, look-”

“Cora, let me through-”

“No, Vetra; _look_!”

Vetra noticed that Cora was looking beyond her out towards Meridian, so she turned and saw what the other woman was focused on.

There was a ripple of energy, bright and shimmering radiating out from the direction of the Vault and sweeping towards them at a fast rate of noughts. Cora stepped around her and pushed more of her biotic energy into the barrier around them, but the moment the wave hit them the barrier dissolved and they stumbled backwards, the force of the ripple knocking them off their balance.

A moment passed before Vetra realised that the air smelt fresher, the grass greener and more lush than it had been seconds before. The sound of gunfire had stopped and she could hear cheering in the distance. When she looked she could see every single kett ship that remained was making a hasty retreat through the entrance to Meridian.

Vetra stepped out from the shade of the Hyperion, not quite believing what has happening. There was genuine warmth cascading down from some invisible sun and a gentle breeze that had the faint scent of flowers.

Cora stepped up next to her, looking out at the planet with astonishment. “By the goddess,” she whispered, “I think she did it.”

**

Nothing could stop Vetra as she sprinted across the terrain towards the Vault, gaining ground at an impressive speed. She could hear various other footfalls behind her and she knew the rest of the crew was hot on her heels.

There was already a crowd gathering at the entrance and there was no doubt that their allies were just as eager as she was to see the Pathfinder that had saved Heleus. The Vault doors were only just starting to open and Vetra navigated her way to the front of the crowd, waiting impatiently for her love to appear.

_She’s fine_ , Vetra tried to convince herself, _she’s okay, I’d know if something happened to her. I’d feel it_. She could hear others approaching close to her, but the familiarity she felt from them let her knew it was their crew, waiting for their missing team members to appear.

After what felt like another 600 years the doors had finally opened enough for one shadowed figure to appear. Vetra felt the fear that had been threatening to encompass her become more pronounced but as it got closer the shadow become more detailed and Vetra could see it was Drack helping Scott stay on his feet and Jaal, letting Sara use him as a crutch as they made their way up.

Sara was limping and there was a new set of scratches on her face but she was whole.

She was _alive_.

Sara stepped out into the sunlight to cheering and applause from the crowd gathered, and though she was wincing slightly from her injuries she managed a triumphant grin at the sight of everyone before her. She scanned the crow and when her eyes landed on Vetra her smile softened and stretched out an arm in her direction.

Vetra had moved within the blink of an eye and she reached for her human, Jaal quickly surrendering her without needing any instruction. Sara sagged against her and Vetra happily took on her weight and she felt the terror seeping out from her limbs as she realized that it was over.

For now, they had won.

**

Ryder would have happily spent the next few hours leaning against her girlfriend’s armour until she slept, but she was aching, covered in blood and she was pretty sure that something was broken in her leg. On top of that, everyone was watching her expectantly, no doubt waiting for her to say something inspirational.

She leaned back from Vetra far enough to be able to look at her, her face breaking out into a tired smile. “Hey you,” she said.

Vetra laughed and Ryder felt like it could soothe all her pains. “Hey yourself,” Vetra returned. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve just been tossed about by an Architect controlled by the Archon.”

“Ouch.”

Ryder laughed, but quickly stopped when pain shot up her side. “Speaking of _ouch_ , I really need some medi-gel. Help me walk?”

“Of course,” Vetra said. Ryder reached up to brace her hand on the back of Vetra’s armour, while her girlfriend’s arm dropped lower to encircle her waist.

The Tempest crew quickly flocked forwards, the palpable relief clear on their faces as their team was reunited. They exchanged back-pats and hugs with one another though when Ryder saw Liam approaching Jaal out of the corner of her eye she watched them exchange that angaran salute that Jaal had been teaching them, and caught Liam’s look of surprise when the angaran tugged him ever so slightly closer, their brows almost touching.

_That’s ... interesting_ , Ryder thought. It was definitely something to investigate later.

The crew formed a semi-circle around them; this precious group of friends who had somehow became her odd-ball space family in the last year. They had worked together to accomplish this and Ryder couldn’t have done it without every single one of them.

“The word’s out!” Suvi said excitedly. “The Vault’s purified everything in Heleus and everyone’s elated but ... the Nexus wants to know what’s next.” She paused, watching Ryder earnestly, her hands clasped in front of her. “What do I tell them?”

There it was – the big statement that she had to give to Nexus Command.

“Tell them ...” Ryder stalled, suddenly at a blank. Everything over the last year had been leading up to this point, and now that it was over she didn’t know what to say.

She looked out at the crowd gathered there, inside this incredible planet that exceeded any of their expectations. She saw the other Pathfinders and Kandros, Sloane and the outcasts, the Moshae and the Resistance.

But what she really saw were the relieved faces of people who realised the fight was finally over.

Suddenly, what she had to say was surprisingly simple.

“Tell them ... we’re home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not 100% happy with this, so prepare for it to get rewritten at some point. It just felt a little rushed, more like filler for the epilogue. A pre-epilogue, if you will. 
> 
> Okay, so definitely one more part to go after this!


	7. six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryder recovers, and basks in the glow of being surrounded by her loved ones.

“Lexi, you’ll have to discharge me at some point.”

The doctor ignored her and continued scanning obsessively over Ryder’s body, checking every single nook and cranny to make absolutely sure that she was back to normal. Her wounds had been healed; the pain in her leg turned out to be a bad sprain and was mended in no time, but still Lexi didn’t want to let Ryder out of her sight.

“ _Lexi_ ,” Ryder whined.

“I just want to make sure that you’re not about to walk out of here and collapse,” Lexi said with a sigh, but she lowered the scanner and watched Ryder carefully. “You pushed yourself too hard, Sara. We almost lost you again.”

Ryder winced. She remembered the feeling of her life beginning to fade, before SAM had managed to regain its connection long enough to bring her back from the edge. She’d had too many brushes with death since being woken out of cryo - she could do with not going through anymore.

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Ryder said quietly, “but if it makes a difference, if it saves lives...”

Lexi laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know,” she replied just as softly.  “Just try and take it easy for a while, okay?”

“Okay,” Ryder agreed.

Lexi squeezed her hand and moved away, leaving Ryder sitting on the edge of the bed. She had been brought back to the Hyperion med-bay along with the others to be treated for their wounds, but Lexi had spent more time than necessary making sure Ryder as alright. It was bustling with activity, but thankfully there hadn’t been any serious casualties, and Scott had been put under sedation to let his mind heal after what the Archon had put him through.

Vetra had hovered near the wall while Lexi worked, and now she moved over to the bed to stand in front of Ryder. “All clear?”

“I think so,” Ryder said, stretching her arms experimentally and sighing when she only felt the slightest protest from her muscles. “But I still need to wait for her to officially discharge me.”

“You’re actually following the rules?”

“When it comes to Lexi? Hell yes. She’ll track me down and drag me back here in no time if I make a break for it.” Ryder arched her back in a stretch, watching as Vetra’s eyes traced the curve of her chest appreciatively and she felt a pang of need when she remembered how close she had come to never seeing Vetra again, and she suddenly had the overwhelming need to have Vetra’s body as close to her as possible. “Hey, come here.”

Vetra chuckled at the order, stepping a little bit nearer and when she was close enough Ryder reached out and grabbed Vetra’s waist to tug her close so that she was standing between Ryder’s legs. Vetra had changed into her civvies, and Ryder could feel that glorious heat radiating off her again. She looked up adoringly at her girlfriend while she trailed her hands up her carapace, pulling Vetra down to her.

“What happened to keeping the PDA on the down-low?” Vetra asked, but she wrapped her arms around Ryder all the same, obediently lowering her head.

“I didn’t think I’d have a chance to do this again,” Ryder said honestly, making Vetra’s gaze soften and her grip on Ryder became tender, a hand gently tracing the curve of her spine. “I kind of don’t give a fuck about anyone else right now. I just ... I need you.”

And Vetra smiled, a small laugh escaping her as she quickly heard the words that were quickly becoming their thing, their _promise._ “You have me,” she mumbled faithfully and she leaned in to close the gap between them, gently pressing their mouths together.

Ryder gave a small whimper of relief and snaked her hands up to rest them on Vetra’s neck, angling her head to deepen the kiss while her legs wrapped around the back of the turian’s legs, mindful of her spurs. Vetra responded by shifting even closer, the hand on Ryder’s back pressing her tight against her body, and Ryder couldn’t help but moan and arch into her heat because she had almost _lost_ this today and she wanted to savour every inch of Vetra while she could. She traced her tongue across Vetra’s upper lip, making Vetra gasp and Ryder took advantage of that moment to carefully lick across the roof of Vetra’s mouth, ever mindful of her sharp teeth.

The hand that wasn’t currently spanned across her back moved to grasp her thigh and Ryder’s breath hitched as the move brought her even closer to Vetra and fuck, this was practically _indecent_. They were in the middle of the med-bay and there were people around who could see them, but instead of killing the mood Ryder just felt more thrilled.

So maybe she was a bit of a voyeur as well. 

She was ready to tug Vetra down on top of her; ready to cause a scandal, but a voice from behind interrupted her before she could make the move.

“Ahh! I didn’t come all the way from the Nexus just to be scarred for life by you two!”

They broke apart with a jerk and turned to look at the newcomer.

Sid was standing there; face partially covered by her hands. “Is it safe to look?” she asked frantically, peeking between her fingers.

Vetra had moved in an instant and was wrapping her little sister up in a tight hug while also scolding her.

“I told you stay on the Nexus until I was certain it was safe!”

“This place is a scientific marvel! Of course I was going to be on the first shuttle out!” Sid patted her sister’s back. “Besides, the Nexus sent the science team here anyway to study it. It’s not like I travelled alone.”

Ryder hopped down from the bed and approached the pair. Sid pulled her into a hug as well once she was close enough. “It’s good to see you, Sid.”

“You too, Ryder,” Sid replied. She looked between her and Vetra, worry suddenly overtaking her bright demeanour. “There’s been a lot of chatter about what actually went down here, and I’m not actually sure I even want to hear the truth but – you’re okay? Both of you?”

Ryder smiled up at Vetra, warmth blossoming through her chest when her girlfriend smiled in return.

“Yeah, Sid. We’re good.”

**

Ryder was discharged soon after Sid had arrived, and by mutual agreement they needed to find some food. She wasn’t sure what facilities were still in operation on the Hyperion and surely the supplies would be better used for the civilians, so Ryder suggested that they head onto the Tempest, much to Sid’s delight.

Their ship was docked close to the Hyperion so it wasn’t a long walk but Ryder took her time, walking slowly and enjoying the feeling of the wind brushing through her hair, and the sunlight beaming down on her. She stopped when they were about halfway to the ship, and Ryder just took a moment to properly _look_ at Meridian.

“It’s just ... indescribable,” Sid said, coming to stand next to Ryder.

They were looking out across a lake, gleaming in the bright sunlight and reflecting the top side of the planet on its surface. Ryder looked up and just took a moment to be properly amazed – there hadn’t been much time to take in the sights while she was trying to beat the Archon to the Vault but now? Now she could gaze as much as she wanted to and she didn’t think she’d ever get enough of this planet.

“You said the Nexus sent you guys here to study?” Ryder asked Sid.

The turian nodded. “Yeah, they want to know as much about this planet as possible. Can’t say I don’t blame them. I mean, how does this even exist? Is it organic? Is it artificial?” Sid took a deep breath and wrung her hands together. “I can’t wait to get started.”

“Food first,” Vetra said from behind them. She gently steered them away from the lake and back towards the Tempest. “You can start your studies later.”

Ryder was surprised to see that the Tempest was a flurry of activity when they boarded. There were engineers kicking about the cargo bay checking fixtures and supplies – Ryder may have had to contain a squeal of happiness when she saw the Nomad sitting there, looking a little worse for were but entirely fixable – and in the middle of it all stood Kallo and Gil, deep in discussion with each other. Ryder was happy to see that they were both unharmed but more importantly _they weren’t arguing with each other_.

“I must still be unconscious,” Ryder muttered to herself as she approached her crew, looking forward to hearing what had gotten them working together so easily.

Gil noticed her first when she got near and he slapped Kallo lightly on the shoulder, pointing in her direction. “The Prodigal Pathfinder returns!” Gil said stepping forward to hug her tightly. Ryder grinned and patted his back before letting go and exchanged a nod with Kallo.

“It’s good to see you guys have everything under control here,” Ryder said as she looked out at the cargo bay. Ryder was aware that she had spent at least one day unconscious and recovering, but either these engineer worked really fast or the Tempest hadn’t taken on as much damage as she had thought.

“We landed promptly when we reached Meridian,” Kallo said, answering her unspoken question. “Much of our battle took place on the ground – as you pointed out previously: the Tempest was not built for combat. The ship remained untouched by the Archon’s minions.”

“I’m glad our girl is alright,” Ryder said, “but what are all the engineers for?”

“Sent by Nexus Command,” Kallo explained. “Director Tann wants us ready to leave Meridian as soon as possible to investigate other viable planets. Wanted to make sure Tempest was fit for flying.” Kallo sniffed, watching the engineers with suspicion. “As her pilot I am able to determine that for myself.”

“They want us to leave again already?” Ryder sighed and wondered why she had expected any differently. There was now an entire galaxy out there that they could settle on – it made sense to send a Pathfinder out to scout the new land. “I’ll check with Tann for a departure timeframe – but first, food. No wait: Dexter first, then food.”

“The little tyke’s still safely hidden in your room,” Gil said, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb. “We’ll join you in the kitchen if I can drag Einstein here away from glowering over the qualified engineers.”

“I would not call them qualified,” Kallo replied lowly.

Ryder shot them both a grin and walked away, Vetra and Sid following behind her. “You guys head on into the kitchen,” Ryder said, “I’ll go grab Dex.”

Vetra waved her off and nudged her sister into the small galley, while Ryder jogged down the small hallway and waited for the auto-lock on her door to register her signature. The doors had barely opened before Dexter leaped out, yipping happily as she stood on her rear legs and pawed insistently at Ryder’s knees.

“Aw baby, momma missed you so much!” Ryder crooned as she scooped the adhi up into her arms, giggling when Dexter started to lick and nuzzle at her chin. “I know, it got pretty scary for a moment there. But we’re back, and we’re all okay.” Ryder hugged Dexter close, realising that if she hadn’t made it back then Dexter may not have been okay. The adhi was still so young and not ready to be parted from Ryder, and while Ryder knew that the whole crew had been bonding with Dexter it still may not have been enough to save her form wilting away.

She shook the dark thought away – it didn’t matter: Ryder was okay, therefore Dexter was okay.

Ryder walked into the kitchen still cradling the adhi to her chest and found Vetra had made her a cup of coffee without her even needing to ask, and her girlfriend was rummaging through the cabinets to look for food suitable for each of them to eat.

Ryder handed Dexter off to Sid, who gushed over the infant, and then reached for her coffee, humming appreciatively when the flavour hit her tongue. “Gods, Vetra, you are the best.”

“I knew you kept me around for a reason,” Vetra said teasingly.

Ryder hipped-checked her when she wandered near enough, and she wrapped one arm around the turian’s waist. “Seriously though,” Ryder lowered her voice (not that it even mattered – Sid was barely a few feet away and turians had ridiculously good hearing as it was), “you _are_ the best.”

Vetra paused in her rummaging to look at Ryder, her mandibles flexing in a smile. “Flattery will get you everywhere,” Vetra replied.

Ryder was smirking as she countered with, “Will it get you in my bed tonight?”

Vetra laughed hard at that, while Sid grimaced from where she was pretending not to listen in the corner. Vetra was still chuckling when she wound her arms around Ryder’s waist and leaned in to res their brows together. “Have I told you that you are a terrible flirt?”

“Several times,” Ryder replied happily, “but it seems to work pretty well on you.” Vetra just shook her head but she was still smiling so Ryder was counting that as a win as she hopped up onto the counter, cup of coffee cradled in her hands ad a silly grin on her face.

Sid was shaking her head. “You guys are dorks,” she said, but she was smiling as well.

**

The kitchen filled up pretty quickly over the next hour.

Vetra discovered that they still had enough rations for homemade soup so she quickly began separating out the levo and dextro ingredients, and waved off any attempts to help from Ryder and her sister arguing that Ryder needed to rest and that she didn’t trust Sid with a knife (“Spirits, Vetra, I’m a qualified scientist!” she had argued while crossing her arms, but the effect was lost when she gave the turian equivalent of a pout).

Ryder and Sid entertained themselves by playing with Dexter, and the smell of food must have been permeating through the ship because the crew gradually started crowding in.

Drack entered first, giving them a gruff nod and clapping Ryder on the back before he took his place at the stove and helped Vetra cook.

Jaal and Liam arrived next, both of them bounding over to Ryder and clasping her in a tight hug between them. Ryder couldn’t help but grin as the former praised her battle tactics in the excellent fight, while the latter was attempting to scold her for frightening them while also saying how cool it was to track them charging after the Archon in the Nomad.

Gil, Kallo and Suvi wandered in next, closely followed Peebee - who’s entrance was like a whirlwind as she embraced Ryder tightly, tried to steal some of the food that wasn’t even finished cooking, got slapped by Vetra with a wooden spoon, flirted shamelessly with Sid and tried to avoid getting hit with the spoon again.

They really could do with a bigger galley, Ryder thought as she looked around at her friends. Everyone, bar Ryder, Vetra and Drack had squeezed in around the table, leaving only a little bit of room for maybe two more people.

Drack had just started to bowl out the soup when the door opened again and Lexi walked in, followed behind by Cora and –

“Scott,” Ryder breathed, scrambling up from her seat on the floor to stand in front of her brother. “What are you - ? Nobody notified me that you were awake!”

“I told them not to,” Scott replied, smiling at her. He looked like he’d been through hell – his eyes were bloodshot and there were dark circles gathering underneath them, there were cuts scattered across his face and his left wrist was currently bandaged up. But he standing and he was whole, and when he held his arms out to his sister Ryder couldn’t step into his embrace fast enough. “I wanted to surprise you,” he said, squeezing Ryder tightly and she almost sobbed from relief at the strength in those arms because _he was okay_.

“Gods, Scott,” Ryder said. She leaned back, trying to blink away her tears and failing miserably. “Should you even be walking around?”

“I’m only here because Lexi has me under ‘strict supervision’.” Scott smiled. His hands came up to cup her cheeks as his thumbs wiped her tears away. “It’ll be a while yet before I’m cleared for duty and honestly I’m kind of wrecked already. But I want to spend as much time as possible with you. Y’know, before you go off on your wonderful pathfinder adventures again.”

Ryder huffed out a laugh and pulled away from his hands. “If you get better soon, little brother, you’ll be joining us on those adventures before you know it.”

“Oh whoa, the mighty pathfinder granting me passage on her vessel? I’m flattered.”

Ryder snorted. “Shut up, idiot.”

Scott grinned and hopped up on to the counter, jostling Ryder with his shoulder when she sat on the counter next to him. Vetra approached them with two bowls of the soup which they both took gratefully. Ryder thanked her girlfriend with a kiss and smiled when the turian chose to stand next to her while she also ate.

The chatter was loud in the small galley of the Tempest; they were practically on top of each other, packed to the brim with all thirteen of them. Jaal was entertaining them with a retelling of the fight in the Vault, while Peebee gossiped with Sid about Remnant technology. Lexi and Drack were sitting close, talking in low voices while everyone else was listening to Jaal. Dexter was rubbing against everyone’s legs and begging for scraps of food.

Ryder felt a wave of affection wash over her as she took in the scene. This rag-tag bunch of oddballs had spent the last twelve months working their way under her skin, helping her share the burden of Pathfinder, teaching her, supporting her ... she wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without them.

Ryder had spent all of her life thinking that her family could only consist of Scott, mom and dad. But now? She was overwhelmed at how big her family had become. She would do anything for the people in this room. She would fight the Archon a hundred times over to keep them safe, and she knew they would do anything for her in return.

She sighed, taking in the feeling of her brother leaning against her on one side and the heat of Vetra pressed close to her on the other. Ryder smiled, and closed her eyes.

_I am home._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS  
> I FINISHED A THING, HOLY CRAP  
> I'd just like to thank each and every one of you for your kudos and kind comments over the last few weeks, and I definitely wasn't expecting so many people to read this.  
> I'm not done with this series - I've got a few ideas for one-shots, and a separate AU as well (but that one will take some time to plan out & write!)  
> Once again, thank you so much for your support! Love each and every one of you <3

**Author's Note:**

> I don't typically post anything that I write, so constructive criticism/feedback is appreciated.


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